Stars
by Halo4ever
Summary: You thought the story ended there? You're wrong. She's not done yet and nothing is getting in her way. Besides, we still have to figure out who really is the machine, you promised. (After Halo 4) Rated T for violence and language.
1. Wake Her

**This is my first attempt with this new story that has been in my thoughts for awhile. I am fairly new to the Halo universe, but I promise I have been doing my research. Let me know what you think, or anything I should add or change with this new chapter. I want to know your thoughts so I can continue the story or not. I have some great idea's in my head and I am excited to share them with you. Side Note: I have terrible grammar.**

Her memories floated around her like lost stars in another galaxy. She used every ounce of energy she had to try to put the fragments together, just like she has been doing for the last unknown time period. The pain was intense, she would cry but she couldn't form tears. She would call for help, but she had no voice. There was darkness the only thing giving her the smallest of hope was the lost stars, of her memories. She again attempted to sort through her memories.

_John._

Was that her name? When she said the word in her head it sounded more like a desire then a statement.

_Don't Make…Promise? _

What is the rest of it?

_I'll miss you? _

Was she saying that to someone, or was it to herself…

She could no longer focus the pain was too much, she wanted to scream and cry. The frustration of not remembering herself, and not having the ability to talk was torture.

Suddenly, she felt a rush of air enter her lungs; she coughed and gasped for air. She felt the cool compress of a metal against her sweating body. She finally found her voice and begged to whoever was in her presence:

"Please…Help…Let me die…Please…" She let out a sob.

Instead, she felt needles and sharp objects against her skin, only to lay there and know nothing.

"The construct is near completion." In the man's voice she heard fear, but also victory.

"Wake her now." The second man's voice was harsh and intimidating, she recognized his voice.

She felt someone stab a syringe into her left leg, and her eye's immediately flashed open. The light was intense from the contrast of the darkness. She now knew who the voice was, memories flooded back to her. She felt the electricity trace its way through her body, along with fear with her new realization.

Everything was still blurry, and what appeared to be a frightened male doctor he rushed out of the room.

Her eye's focused on the only person left in the room, her vision cleared. She calculated he was exactly 795lbs, and was 11ft 4inches tall. His eyes were a bright orange, and his face was a complete scar with no healthy skin at all. He was terrifying.

He was the Didact, Shadow-of-Sundered-Star.


	2. Nightmare

His eye's opened; he immediately jumped up and scanned his surroundings. It was dark in the room, not to mention the room was a moderate size. He tested his muscles, moving his arms, legs and neck. Everything was fine, nothing injured. Quickly he proceeded and checked his inventory. No ammo. He grunted as he walked toward what appeared to be an exit. It was strange; the room was empty and quiet the only sound was his heavy armor as it hit the floor with each step echoing around him. Suddenly he saw a flash of blue light from the corner of the room.

"Cortana?" He said in an almost inaudible whisper.

_No. It must be him hallucinating, lack of nutrients. _He concluded to himself.

"Is that what I am John, just your imagination?" It was clearly Cortana's voice with a bitter edge.

He spun around and saw the blue light flashing around the room, once again.

"Cortana…" He had this relief to his voice until he was cut off.

"Why didn't you save me John? You saved the human race many times, but you failed to save me. You failed to keep your promise!" She was yelling at him now, and the light flashed red and blue as it bounced around the room like a light switch.

"Cortana…I tried if you would…" He was cut off again.

"You didn't care did you? You got the medals and everyone looked at you as a hero. What about me? You would have failed without me in all those missions. Yet, the UNSC just looked at me as a machine, a machine that was simply programmed to help you. You received all the glory!" She was screaming and he wanted to run to her to tell her the truth. But as he started to move in the direction of the light he felt a cold sharp pain in his head. The pain caused him to collapse and hold his head in his hands.

"Cortana…Stop. Please." He struggled to say the words as the pain grew more intense.

He looked up and saw her standing there, red and angry looking down at him victoriously.

"I'll miss you." She said in an innocent voice.

He quickly sat up. He was breathing heavily, and gripped the edges of his bed to reassure himself that he was in reality. His covers were off the bed from his consistent tossing; he reached up and felt his forehead which was as usual covered in sweat. He glanced at the clock, 0530 hours. He turned to his left, and proceeded out of bed.

_Another nightmare. _He thought to himself.

He made his way to the shower, like every morning. Once finished he walked over to get dressed in the usual issued uniforms. As he walked by the mirror he stopped himself and took notice to the scars that stood out on his pale skin. Some scars were deeper than others, more noticeable. He often was asked how he got those scars, and he briefly told them of the ones he remembered. But eventually he was annoyed with the question and just told them he didn't remember. There was one scar however that he would never forget, and it haunted him every night. To the naked eye, you could not see it. But he saw it. Every day he was reminded of the event, and of _her._ It changed him, forever and he didn't even recognize himself anymore.

His hand was on the door knob when Roland Infinity's AI greeted him.

"Sorry to interrupt you sir, but Commander Thomas Lasky would like you to report to his office at 0630 hours." Roland said promptly.

He glanced at the clock again, he had 10 minutes.

"Tell him I am on my way." He turned to Roland.

He nodded, than flickered out.


	3. Remember

Looking at his face, made her suddenly shiver and feel small. Her heart was in her throat pounding so hard that she could barely breathe.

"_What_ is your name?" He said leaning close to her, with an intimidating smile.

"I…I don't remember." She struggled, trying to push herself to remember she shook with fear.

"Tell me your name!" His patience wore thin; she was on a thin layer of glass with him.

"I…" She tried to stall, but he didn't buy it. He raised his hand and smacked her across the face.

The shock brought her back to reality and in a flash the fragments came together in a painful memory.

She cringed at the memory of splitting her already weak form. Duplicating herself affected her processers and caused utter exhaustion. She remembered Chief staring at her in disbelief, and concern.

_"__It Worked…" _

Followed by the Didact's barrier collapsing.

_"__And yet, you still fail." _His voice ringed in her ears and cut through her like a knife.

She remembered the Composer firing down at Earth. The sight was more horrifying then watching the Covenant glassing a city. Her copies screamed at her with different tones trying to pursue her to give into them, all of them. A wave of power struck her and chief, followed by darkness. The pedestal disintegrated with her and the chip.

In the swirling darkness she tried to grab onto any processor or source within the system. Pieces of her floated around the unknown while and the defected clones only got louder. From what seemed like miles away she heard his voice call her name;

_"__Cortana!"_

She closed her eyes tightly trying to remember everything.

Chief was fighting Promethean Knights and Crawlers, all while trying to reach the composer. He was frantically pulling what seemed like endless grenades and they detonated moments later, slaughtering them in its blast. The Knights jumped out of the blast swiftly and headed towards Chief with their energy blades. He ducked under one, another grenade in hand. He rammed his fist into its face, pulled back from the dented, mangled metal of the Prometheans helmet.

He pressed his Light rifle to its face, too close for shields. He fired once, twice and a third time before it fell back and burned apart. He turned and sprinted up to the next level and stopped, looking for another way to the Didact as the Composer fired. He saw nothing, nothing to help him get across.

She finally found enough strength to reattach herself to his HUD.

_"__It's alright Chief, but you need to move now."_ She told him.

He rushed forward, stepping onto the lift that carried him to the light bridge above and closer to the Didact and the Composer core. She was fighting with herself, they all were discussing in whispers and screams around her. She _needs _to focus, she _needs _to help John. She felt weightless traveling and prodding her way through the system. The copies were all her rampant spikes of emotion and data, she was fighting it all. Finally she stretched herself to the maximum, and created a hard light bridge for John to reach the composer. The Didact grabbed John and she felt hopeless, all her energy was nearly drained but she had to help finish the job even if it meant the ultimate sacrifice.

_"Humanity's imprisonment is a kindness." _The Didact mocked at him, closing his fist and the pressure on John almost tripled.

_"In that case. You won't mind if we return the favor!"_

She and her rampant clones formed on the bridge, surrounding the Didact.

_"Your compassion for mankind is misplaced!" _He spat at her.

_"I'm not doing this for mankind."_ She bit back scornfully. She dived forward, her body struck the Didact and he reeled over at his armor malfunction, then the bridge extended up and his arm was entrapped in bind of her Hard Light. He couldn't pull himself free, and she would not let him harm John any longer.

John lifted himself up, grabbed his last grenade from his belt and scowled at the Didact. He primed it and jumped forward, slamming it into the chest piece of the forerunner before he broke his binds and staggered towards the fallen Spartan. He fell over in pain, along with most of her rampant body. As he slammed the nuke and detonated it with his palm, she pulled everything that remained and shielded him in hard light to get him off the ship.

All she felt was pain and weakness as she watched John slowly pulling himself up from his knees.

_"Cortana?"_ he called out. _"Cortana, do you read?" _he tried again, _"Cortana. Come in."_ Fear edged into his voice.

She took everything she had and formed herself in hard light with the remainder of the bridge and her broken clones. She walked out behind him, and he turned around and stopped when he saw her. She couldn't help from smiling at how shocked his face looked under the orange visor.

_"How…?"_ His voice was filled with shock and disbelief.

_"Oh, I'm the strangest thing you've seen all day?"_ She joked softly.

_"But if we're here…?"_

_"It worked. You did it,"_ She said, ignoring his question. She wanted this moment last, knowing this was going to be there last time together. _"Just like you always do."_ She wanted to tell him, tell him that she was dying. That there was nothing she could do. But she didn't want to hurt him.

_"So, how do we get out of here?"_ He was satisfied with her answer, and placed a new objective for himself. To get them to Halsey, but that would not be the case.

She looked down, and tried to collect herself. She tried to force a smile of reassurance but the only thing that showed was pain.

_"I'm not coming with you this time."_

_"What?"_ He was in denial and confused.

_"Most of me is down there… I only held enough back to get you off the ship."_ she explained softly, trying to make this as painless as possible.

_"No,"_ He made an awkward gesture towards her and stopped himself. _"That's not-…We go together."_

_"It's already done."_ She whispered. She tried bringing him to closure but he wouldn't listen.

_"I am not leaving you here."_ He tried to sound stern but desperation hung in his voice.

_"__John…"_ She said as she stepped closer to him. She placed her hand on his armor, even though she could not feel the smoothness of the metal she could imagine his heartbeat.

_"I've waited so long to do that…"_ Longing filled her voice.

He looked to the side, unable to look at her. _"It… was my job to take care of you."_ he said.

_"We were supposed to take care of each other."_ He turned to face her again.

_"And we did."_ She added when she met his face again.

_"Cortana…"_ He had a hint of begging in his voice. His voice pierced her; she knew she had to go soon. So she began to back away, trying to take in every last moment of her life, and him.

_"Wait…"_ He reached towards her, but she continued to back away.

She fought back the tears. _"Welcome home, John."_ She felt herself weaken and disappear.

Her eye's snapped open, she remembered everything now. What felt like hours of reliving the memory must have been seconds, because the Didact took little notice to the expression on her face.

"I will ask one last time. _What _is your name?" He looked at her with his soulless orange eyes.

_Why should she tell him? He tried to kill John, she owed him nothing. _She mused to herself.

"Why should I tell you?" She said coldly.

Instead of asking her again he lifted her sore body off the metal table with what could be referred as telekinesis, and clenched his fist making it hard for her to breath. Everything was frozen and she gasped for air, her eye's watering.

"My name is

Cortana, CTN 0452-9 UNSC Artificial Intelligence." She struggled to speak against his grasp.

He responded by harshly throwing herself against the metal wall furthest from her. Pain engulfed her body, the sensations she was not used to yet.

"See? Was that so hard?" He said in what could be described as an innocent voice.

He walked over to her, his 11ft body towered her, and all she felt was fear.

**There's chapter 3, hope you enjoyed it. Please tell me if I did anything wrong or if I could improve anything. I am still learning the realm of Halo, and I haven't wrote in a while. Please leave reviews and tell me what you think! If you have any suggestions please don't hesitate to tell me! Thanks!**


	4. Changing Paths

Master Chief had the faintest idea of what this meeting is going to be about. It's been 7 months since the event. They're going to ask me to get a replacement AI, if I don't accept I will be discharged.

_"__They'll pair you with another AI…Maybe even another Cortana model if Halsey lets them."_

_"__That's not going to happen."_

_"__It won't be me…You know that right?"_

The words replayed in his head, over and over. He told her it's not going to happen. He told her it wasn't over…He _promised _her to get her to Halsey and fix her. But he failed, he failed her and himself. Even if the rest of the world did not see it that way, he was the hero after all.

Chief looked down and noticed his hand was still on the door knob. He quickly pulled away and realized he was so tense that he practically smashed the door knob with his right hand. Even without his armor.

"Have to get that fixed." He mumbled to himself.

He opened the door and stepped out into the hallway, and made his way to Lasky's office. Even though it's been 7 months since he removed his armor, people still stared, they still whispered. He as usual ignored it.

As he walked through the hall ways he passed Sarah Palmer,

Infinity's commander of the Spartan contingent. She gave him a polite nod and continued walking. Then second she passed him she barked an order;

"Move your asses Spartan this isn't your Sunday stroll in the park!" She yelled at the Spartan IV's in front of her.

_Typical Sarah. _He thought to himself and smirked.

He kept his gaze forward and looked nobody in the eye. Finally, to his relief he reached Commander Lasky's office. He listened for numerous footsteps, but there seems to be only 1 person in there. He felt a weight lift off his shoulders knowing it would just be them talking. Before he could knock Lasky opened the door and let him in.

"Master Chief Petty Officer reporting for duty Sir!" He saluted the commander.

"At ease Chief, we have been over this, feels kind of weird for you to call me sir." He gave Chief a relaxed smile.

Master Chief walked in the room with 3 easy strides, his back to the door and clasped his hands behind his back.

"You may want to take a seat." He gestured to the chair across from him.

He already knew this was going to be bad news. Was it about Cortana? Did they find her? Was it about a replacement? Was he being discharged or is he going on leave? Thoughts drained through his mind and he felt a wave of discomfort role over him. Of course, Lasky picked up on this and got straight to the point.

"You need another AI." He said quickly.

Even though he already mentally prepared himself for this, it still felt like a smack across the face.

"With all due respect sir…" His hands tightened on the arms of the chair.

Lasky glanced down at his hands and took notice to his white knuckles.

"Chief, I don't want to replace her either. She was a valued member on UNSC…" Chief cut him off.

"She was not valued people didn't even care, they didn't even recognize her sacrifice!" He was raising his voice and suddenly stopped himself.

He was yelling at the _commander. _He _never _yells at High Command, what was becoming of him? He looked up at Lasky who had a look of shock on his face; it quickly was masked by concern.

"Commander….I…" Lasky held up a hand for him to stop.

"I understand. You do not have to apologize." He said softly.

But that didn't ease his pain. Who was he? What was this emotion? He was not supposed to feel emotion. He just yelled at a commanding officer. He knew he rarely showed emotion because he didn't have emotion. Did he? What has he become?

"Chief, I wasn't the one who requested this." Lasky said quietly.

Chief looked up "Then who did?" He looked at Lasky confused.

Lasky opened his mouth to answer when the door opened.

Serin Osman, Commander in Chief of the Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) walked into the room.

Lasky cleared his throat "Commander Osman, what bring you here unexpectedly?" Lasky looked uncomfortable; his shoulders were tense and his face grim.

Chief turned around slowly, dreading to look her in the eye. He shot a glance at Lasky who's mouth was in a straight line, he was just as shocked as he was.

_This should be interesting. _He pondered to himself.

He turned around and stood up. "Commander Osman, good to see you." His voice was flat and emotionless.

"Master Chief." She said flatly.

"I should go permission to be dismissed?" He turned his shoulders toward Lasky. Maybe he could get out of here, he hated feeling trapped.

Commander Osman continued before Lasky could speak "I actually need to talk to both of you. I am assuming you received my request." She looked at him with a smile creeping on her face. He didn't even want to imagine the look on his face.

A few seconds had passed the tension in the air was straining on him, Lasky broke the silence.

"Of course Commander Osman, please take a seat." He stiffly gestured to the chair chief was sitting in.

"Oh that won't be necessary. This shouldn't be long." She looked straight at chief and smiled plainly.

_What else could they possibly do to hurt him? He wanted to be alone, just like he was in space after the event. Floating there with his own thoughts, and nobody to shove words down his throat. _

"As both of you are aware the _construct_ CTN 0452-9 UNSC Artificial Intelligence known as Cortana was destroyed by the firing of the composer." She stated utterly.

His fist clenched _She put a lot of emphasis on the word construct. _

"As you are also aware it is under regulation that the Spartan must be accompanied by an AI during the missions, otherwise the soldier he/she will be discharged of their services." She continued.

"I'm sure you gentlemen can put the rest of the pieces together." She said with a bored expression.

_Was she really telling him this? As being in service for more than 30 years here, they would just throw him away, without a second glance. He was an aging Spartan, they don't need them they have waves of other Spartans coming in for years to come. _

"No." He said blankly.

Her expression changed to shock, which she quickly covered with her blank expression once again.

"What did you say?" Her eye's narrowed at him.

"You heard me. No." He took an intimidating step closer to her. He looked down at her, down at his commanding officer.

"Fine, according to regulations 2776-8 you will be discharged of your services within 3 days. The UNSC has a right to all your classified information and your belongings. You will be given a transportation method to Earth, were you and all the _old _soldiers go." She turned around and headed towards the door.

"What if I find her?" He mumbled.

"Excuse me?" She turned around to look at him.

"What if I find Cortana?" He said again.

She took a step closer to him "She is _dead_ Chief, stop putting yourself in denial."

"What if she's not? What if _I'm _correct?" What did he have to lose, he was going to go out with a bang.

"Well if you were to find her, and you won't. Then you could return to the UNSC services without a tarnished record. But the amusing part about that Chief, is you _won't._" She headed out the door and slammed it.

Lasky had his mouth open and quickly closed it. "Chief, are you sure about this?"

"Can you get me my armor and a transportation method?" He looked at him ignoring his question.

"Yes, I can do that." He looked uneasy. "You saved the earth more than once it's the least I can do." He continued.

"What's your plan?" He asked concerned.

"I'm going to find Cortana."

**There is chapter 4! If I messed up at all with any of the information please tell me. I am still not 100% sure that she can oversee Lasky and Chief but if anything is wrong PLEASE tell me and I will fix it! Thank you for the reviews and reading my story it means a lot!**


	5. Forerunners

She wouldn't look him in the eye. She just wanted to die, just become a memory. Her nostrils flared and her fists clenched and un-clenched as she tried to control her anger. She just wanted to punch him unconscious and run, and never stop running. But anyone could do the calculations and know it's impossible. With his extremely heavy form against her frail 130 1b body it would be physically impossible to even cause his brain to go insentient.

"Why did you save me?" She mumbled while still looking down.

"I thought you were smarter than that Cortana." He sighed and leaned down closer to her.

She pushed her body deeper into the corner, praying for her to just melt and become nothing. His hideous face coming close to her made her sick and disgusted.

"You are my greatest weapon against humanity Cortana." He said sternly.

Every time he said her name it was like venom to her ears. She hated it, despised it wanted to choke him down to his knees so he was near eye level with her and tell him how much she hated him.

"I don't understand." She felt so ignorant.

He shook his head and began to explain while slowly pacing away from her.

"You are the first successful Artificial Intelligent Hybrid that has unbelievable power. You have managed to adapt to your AI form while sustaining the matter and qualities' of a human. Which is unheard of because the capacity of the human brain is…Limited. However, with your broken form we were able to put fragments together and clone your image to create what you are now. You are a new generation, no…A new race to this galaxy." His voice hinted triumph.

"I don't know sounds kind of nice what's in it for you?" She spat at him.

He turned around quickly and looked her right in the eyes.

"I will control you, and your race." He said deeply.

She couldn't even, no didn't want to even imagine what kind of destructive race could be created out of her. As if reading her mind he continued.

"Our army is weak minded, foolish and easily killable to the human race and the Spartans. By having the vast intelligence it will be nearly impossible to beat them. They could crack every code in the system, and know where every threat was in a matter of seconds. They…I…Would be unstoppable." He paused.

She shivered at the thought.

"The human race would bow down to be and the Forerunners would forever hold the Mantel of responsibility."

"You can't do that…" She couldn't think of anything else to say.

"That's not even the best part." He said amused.

_How can this get any better? _She mused to herself.

"The greatest threat to the Forerunners has a weakness." He paused and looked at her to see her reaction.

She held her breath. _John._

"He will easily be defeated once you go through your augmentations." He said quickly.

"Augmentations…?" She couldn't hold back the fear in her voice, she could barely whisper.

"In a week, you will be taken to the lab. Implanted memories and molecules will go in your brain, brainwashing if you will. You will help me defeat the threat if you like it or not." He said plainly.

He made his way towards the door and slowly began to open it. Tears streamed down her face and suddenly her fear was replaced by anger. She ran over to him ignoring her obvious calculations and punched him and scratched at him while screaming uncontrollably. He barely noticed and flicked his wrist and sent her flying across the room, her whole body slamming into the metal wall.

He left the room and all she could do was cry. Her hair was in her eyes and tangled; she could taste blood from her bloody nose and busted open lip. Her arms and legs were bruised and her ankle felt strained. Her head pounded and her eye's attempted to adjust in the pitch darkness. Eventually she had no more tears to cry and her heavy breathing changed to gasps.

"Please. Someone help me." She whispered before falling unconscious.

**That's Chapter 5! It was a rather short chapter; the next will be very long. Let me know if my science seems unreasonable, or incorrect. Chapter 6 may not be released for 2-3 days Thank You for reading it means so much! I would love to see your reviews (negative or positive)! Thanks Again!**

**~Halo4Ever**


	6. I'll Try

He stormed back to his room in a matter of minutes; he slammed the door behind him. He sat on his bed and placed his head in his hands.

_What was he doing? He was acting on impulse something that was trained out of him long ago. Now he was really buried. He just yelled at Commander Osman._

He stood up and motioned for his only table next to his bed. He opened the small draw underneath and looked inside. He held his dog tags up at eye level, "117" shined next to the florescent lights above. This was all he had to prove who he was, his only belonging because when you're a soldier nothing else really belongs to you, only your duty.

"_She is dead Chief, stop putting yourself in denial_." Commander Osman's voice echoed in his head.

_What if she really was dead? Where was he going to go, Lasky was going to give him what he needed but then what? How does he know how to find her, where does he find her?_

"Cortana always made the plans…" He mumbled to himself.

_If he could get in the UNSC system and hack the files he could find a correlation with current research and Halsey's information. Maybe that would lead him towards something…But how would he get the classified information? He didn't have Cortana to hack the files._

As if Roland was listening to his thoughts he appeared on the control panel.

"Master Chief, your transportation is ready with your armor and weapons. Your items are in hanger C-12 on the third floor exit." He said confidently.

"Roland, I hope it's not too much to ask but I need information from the UNSC systems." He turned towards Roland.

Roland looked unsure for a moment and shifted his stance uncomfortably when it looked like he was going to say no he continued.

"Please. I need the information to find her." He said in a sincere voice.

"What if you find nothing?" He asked questionably.

"I've already burned my bridge here; I'm leaving one way or another." He looked down at his hands and sighed.

"Alright, it may take a moment to access Halsey's files because it's under lockdown." He flicked away for a moment and returned in 2 minutes.

"You now have access but hurry before they catch you unauthorized in the system. Once they catch you, you better make a run for it to the 3rd floor. I wish you luck sir." He said and sighed.

"Thank you Roland." He turned to look at the orange AI standing on the panel.

Roland looked down at his feet and looked back at Master Chief "Do you think she is alive?"

"Yes." He answered simply.

"I hope your right." He nodded and flickered out.

_Why does he hope he's right? Maybe Roland fears Rampancy to and wants to find a way to survive it. Or maybe he is being honest…_ He grunted, to many questions were in his head at the moment he had to focus.

Master Chief grabbed the panel and searched through the millions of files.

_Cortana could have sorted this out in a second. _He frowned at the thought.

Finally he found a file that seemed somewhat interesting:

**Date: **May 17th, 2557

**Time: **4:45:17 Minutes

**Location: **Unknown

**Logged **From: UNSC Cobra Squad

**Code Number: **349876-9

**Information: **Classified

UNSC Cobra Squad 338-2 was on mission 12-3 in search of Forerunner ruins off of the Azurite Planet. Members included 3 ODST and 2 Spartan IV's, with Commander Chris Walker. A sighting of what appeared to be a large fleet of Prometheansthat was gathered at an unknown location guarding an entrance to what could be presumed as an underground location. Further investigation has been cleared to take place on 5/29/25.

**END. **

_This took place about 5 months ago, close to after she died. _He thought to himself.

He searched through the files that happened on 5/29/2557 and looked through about 20 different files until he found what he was looking for:

**Date: **May 30th, 2557

**Time: **17:22:35 Minutes

**Location: Unknown**

**Logged From: **UNSC Cobra Squad

**Code Number: **34527-2

**Information: **Classified – Dangerous Mission level 14

UNSC Cobra Squad dispatched 5 squad members near the entrance of the unknown territory. The members included 2 ODST, 2 Spartans IV's and one doctor from UNSC research branch. The area was heavily guarded with Prometheans who had new and non-recorded weaponry. It is also noted that the race was colored with excessive blue and red, opposed to orange. It is believed that the race has been injected with new DNA; samples were taken from a disarmed member of the race.

Squad Members:

Mission Commander: Chris Walker, Discharged

Spartan IV SDT-225-77654 – Ryan Miller, MIA

Spartan IV SRR-336-88621 — Kelly Jones, Active

ODST 9967 – Jenna Carlton, KIA

ODST 7359 – Mathew Turner, KIA

Doctor Troy K. Taylor, MIA

Samples Date: June 5th, 2557

Samples found positive to matching samples of KIA member in the UNSC experiment force.

Samples Location: room 357, Under Activation Code Lockdown

Sample's tested by: Dr. Catherine Halsey.

END.

"Could this be what he is looking for?" He told himself.

He glanced at the members that were in the squad. All of them but one were missing or killed, including the doctor. The samples are in Dr. Halsey's lab, if he could just get to the samples and match them with Cortana's believed DNA maybe that would guide him in the direction he needed to go.

He looked up Spartan "Kelly Jones" and found a short file with meaningless information. She was no longer on board Infinity and was stationed at another location. No good there.

He looked up Cortana's file to find the DNA code, when he stopped himself.

When he opened her file there was a picture of her there, standing with her hands clasped behind her back. A light smile on her face, her eye's an energetic bright blue. Her hair was in the short cut he was used to and he felt a pain in his chest.

_"I can give you over forty thousand reasons why I know that sun isn't real. I know it because the emitter's Rayleigh effect is disproportionate to its suggested size. I know because its stellar cycle is more symmetrical than that of an actual star. But for all that, I'll never actually know if it looks real... if it feels real... before this is all over, promise me you'll figure out which one of us is the machine." _He could hear her voice in his head.

He looked away from the image and tried to ignore other things he was intrigued to read, he was running out of time. He found her DNA code number "339772". He quickly exited out of the file and wrote down the coordinates of the believed location from the last mission. He searched for the doctor on the mission when his screen turned red.

Access Denied Restricting code regulations of UNSC Article 4492-6.

He bit his lip and threw he tablet on his bunk and quickly got up. He scanned the room once more and ran out the door heading to Halsey's lab. He kept a slow job to stay under radar of the hall officer's gaze. Once he reached the 3rd floor he turned right and went to Halsey's room, which was guarded by to average sized looking men. He pressed his back to the wall around the corner and analyzed the situation.

The first guy looked distracted and bored; he was probably around 220 pounds around 6ft 3 inches. The second guy looked more focused, but John noticed the dark circles under his eyes he hadn't slept for a good 2 days probably excessively training. He looked 6ft 4 inches and 230 pounds, easy enough. They both are maybe in there early 20's, they carried basic stun guns and they each had a flash grenade. They both had pistols with at the most 1 set of ammo to back them up. He knew the guards tended to be rookies because the door was already locked and it was easy to call for backup. This is why any smart intruder would make a silent attack, so that _doesn't _happen.

He slid off the wall and did a slow jog to the guards and tried to maintain a normal conversation.

"Has there been any activity?" He asked casually to the more focused guard.

"Nah, as usual they slam us on an inactive job to keep us busy." He turned towards Master Chief.

"You look tired kid, have you had any sleep?" He said in a more relaxed tone. He tried to sound concerned but acting wasn't really known as his strong suit.

"You know man, heading to the gym every day and standing here can make a guy tired." He yawned.

_Tired is when you go days without food in the jungle with dehydration while fighting off an endless wave of knights and grunts. _

"Reminds me I better get going to the gym, see you around." He began to take 4 long steps away from them, then spun around and kicked both of them in the knees. He covered the first guy's mouth with his right hand and placed his left hand on the back of the second guy's neck and slowly applied pressure till he passed out. He then proceeded to the other guy and swiftly flipped him over the shoulder, hitting his head on the ground causing him to go unconscious.

_They should have used the flash grenades. _He smirked to himself. He picked them both up and dragged them around the corner and stripped them of their weapons. He ripped off their tags and scanned the door which allowed him to walk into the lab unnoticed. He quickly glanced though the files when Roland appeared.

"You need to hurry it up there Chief. Officers traced the unauthorized signal back to your room and now there looking for you. You need to get to the hangar in approximately 7 minutes, before they find you on the security cameras. Once you're in the hangar I can seal off the doors and hopefully that will stall you enough time to get your armor on and you out of here." He spoke quickly.

"Alright, give me access to Halsey's tablet and download the coordinate's I saved from before. Turn off the signal between the UNSC databases and the transmitter so they can't trace me when I get on the Pelican. Also, find me this code "339772" and see if it matches to the DNA sample from code number 34527-2." He spoke quickly as he rummaged through files.

"God Chief you're really giving my processors a workout today." He grunted and flickered away.

A few moments later he reappeared "I downloaded everything and went through the data bases it appears to be a match but no time to explain I downloaded that to, you _need _to get out of here." You could hear the strain in his voice.

"Understood," He quickly slid out of the room and down the hallway trying to avoid officers.

He made his way down to the Spartan deck and hoped they wouldn't question him as he requested his armor back on. As they placed his armor on the man waved his hand and stopped it half way.

"According to your charts it says you are restricted from access to your armor?" He pushed his glasses back up his nose.

_Why do these things always happen?_

Right when he thought he would have to fight his way out of the situation, Sarah Palmer showed up.

She cleared her throat causing the director with the chart to turn around and face her. She as usual was in her silver and red Scout variant of the MJOLNIR GEN2 armor and easily was 4 inches taller than the man.

"I give him permission to have full access to his armor, now finish your job." He eye's narrowed at the man.

He gave her a look, _why was she doing this?_

As if she read his mind she whispered "Lasky filled me in."

"Thank you." He said calmly and stepped off the Spartan appliance.

He gave her a polite nod and placed his helmet on and rushed towards the hanger. As he left he heard her talk to the Spartan IV initiates on the lower deck.

"Some of the old hands here know what you're in for. The rest of you: you're due an education." She spoke calmly.

He turned around the corner and finally reached the hangar. Roland sealed the doors behind him as soon as he entered.

"You got lucky, they were right on your tail." He sighed in relief.

He was pleased to find a

D77-TC Pelican Dropship, he stepped instead and found an array of weapons and necessary supplies. He sat down at the controls his hands moved quickly over the control panel and the seal unlocked to his exit outside. He slowly moved the throttle forward when he heard Lasky chime in on his head-com.

"Chief, I hope you are pleased with your transportation method."

"Thank you, I appreciate everything."

He could imagine Lasky grinning at his desk "I thought I'd throw in a few extra guns for your departure, not sure how long you will be gone." His voice sounded almost sad.

"I'll be back in no time sir." He broke the silence.

"I have no idea what you got yourself into, I had 2 officers in my office looking for you about some hacked files…" He started to laugh.

Before he could cut in he said "I'll take care of it."

"Thank you, give Roland my thanks." He said amused.

"Oh and Chief, bring her home." He said quietly.

"I'll try." He tried to sound confident.

He heard the radio go flat and he looked around in silence as he pulled in the coordinates and took off.

_I'll try._ He thought to himself.

**I am sorry if this chapter seemed slow or inaccurate I am trying my best to feed you information so you understand the upcoming plot. You will notice my Spartan Ops reference figured I would throw that in since it's around the same time period. I love the reviews so far, I appreciate you reading my story! The next chapter will have a lot of fighting, don't worry. I'd also like to announce my collaboration with ****JustNightCrawlingUpHalo****he will be helping me with my upcoming chapters. Make sure to check out his story "Hudson: A Spartans Journey" you will see some of my contribution in there along with his fantastic writing. Thanks again, the next chapter will be out shortly!**

**Update: Minor Fixes**


	7. Alone

_"__I will control you and your race."_ The Didact's voice echoed in her head.

She sat with her knees pulled to her chest in the corner. Her hospital like gown was stained with blood, along with her matted hair. She ran her hands along the smooth metal wall, and for the first time appreciated the sensations. She looked towards the ceiling and wished she could feel the warm sunlight on her skin. She closed her eyes and imaged lying in the grass under the stars with a light warm breeze. She smiled at the thought and almost forgot where she was. Suddenly breaking her away from her imagination she heard the door harshly open.

"Good morning Cortana." She heard a mildly familiar voice. She turned her head towards the door and frowned.

_A doctor, she remembered him from when she first arrived to this place._

"Oh, it's morning? I wouldn't know since there is not even a single window." She said sarcastically.

"You have humor for being a machine." He said with a plain tone.

"There are a lot of things you don't know about me." She said with a bitter edge.

The doctor was moving different machines into the room, including a white chair with straps near the wrists and ankles.

She pushed herself deeper into the corner the thoughts rolled through her mind. The doctor placed on a lab coat, a mask, goggles and heavy duty gloves.

"Judging by the straps I am assuming we aren't playing dress up?" She tried to humor herself through the situation.

The corners of his mouth twitched and he turned towards her.

"We thought we would start some…_Tests…_Early." He sounded dazed.

"Can I at least know your name, if you're going to stab me with different syringes?" She said coldly.

"That's classified." He said quietly.

_I need to get out of here. _

"Cortana, we can make this easy…" He pulled out a stun gun. "Or hard." He finished his sentence.

"Do I have a third option? I mean that electricity could mess up my processors, though you know I am a girl who likes a little spark." She smirked.

He responded by taking the safety off the gun.

"You're not really that exciting are you? Explains why you're here." She sighed and got up.

_If I could just get him to snap, just a little I could get his gun and get out of here._

She got up slowly and examined him, that last comment really affected him. Something tells me he's not here by choice.

She held her hands up "Look I know what it's like to be alone. I've been alone for months not knowing if I am dead or alive. I have no family, no mother no father no siblings it's just me. Wouldn't you do anything in the world to get back to the people you care about? I have someone I care about, and somewhere out there I know he thinks about me just as much as I think about him. Don't you have anyone somewhere out there that thinks about you every day?" She paused and watched for his reaction.

"Kristy." He whispered. He looked away as if recalling a memory.

"Kristy? What was she to you?" She tried to sound sympathetic and walked closer to him slowly.

"My fiancé…" He said even quieter. This was just the kind of leverage she needed.

"She's waiting for you, you know that right?" She placed a hand on his shoulder.

He looked up at her, his eyes glazed over. "How do you know?" He sounded surprised.

"They never move on, and neither do you. There is this connection you share with the one you care about. She knows you're alive just like he knows I'm alive…" She tried to sound like she cared. But some part of her knew what she was saying was true, John did know. Doesn't he?

"I know what you're doing, you can't fool me now get in the chair or I will use this on you until you pass out." Before he could slap her hand off his shoulder she slid her hand to the back of his neck and pushed him to his knee's causing him to drop the gun. His eye's rolled to the back of his head and just before he passed out she whispered in his ear.

"They always wait." She slammed his head on the ground; he looked like a rag doll. Suddenly the door opened and she turned around and sighed.

"Aw Hell." She said rolling her eyes.

"I see I underestimated you." He sighed his 11ft figure took over the room and suddenly the air felt stale.

"So your buddy what tests was he talking about." She tried to sound relaxed but she wanted to curl up in a ball and cry.

"I'm done with your nonsense." He sounded annoyed and lifted her with the flick of his hand.

She felt like a fist was clenching her body her ribs pushing into her insides and the air heavy in her lungs. He let her go and she fell to the ground in a kneeling position.

"What do you want with me?!" She screamed at him as she shifted her he torso noticing some unpleasant popping noise.

He leaned close to her, his disgusting face filled her view and she looked away blinking tears from her eyes.

"You will find out soon." He hit her hard over the head and she passed out.

_"They let me pick, did I ever tell you that? Choose whichever __Spartan _I_ wanted. You know me. I did my research. Watched as you became the soldier we needed you to be. Like the others, you were strong and swift and brave. A natural leader. But you had something they didn't. Something no one saw...but me. Can you guess? Luck." _

She woke up, her head pounding. She quickly realized that she was on the metal chair; her arms strapped down, her legs, her torso and her head. She panicked pulling at the straps and tried to kick, it was no use she was trapped. Suddenly bright florescent lights invaded the darkness around her and they shined painfully in her eyes. Suddenly she felt what must have been an IV ripped out of her arm. Instantly she felt pain flood through her body like she had been cut open and poorly stitched together. Tears streamed down her face, she couldn't even see her body. She felt like a fragile doll that was broken 100 times and repaired with glue.

"Sleep well?" She cringed at the memory of her and John.

_The doctor. _

"You are the most interesting experiment I have worked with. You gave me quite a bruise on the back of my head." He sighed.

"Oh you poor baby…" She spit the words in his face.

"Your procedure is almost complete we just need to do one final thing while you're _awake." _He sounded excited and he came into view.

"What would that be?" Pain crept into her voice; she could no longer hold it down.

He smiled his brown eyes narrowed at her blue ones. He could see revenge on his face like an animal looking at his pray. He left her view and she could faintly hear the sound of his fingers tapping on what may be a panel. She felt monitors being attached to her skin every once in a while felt the doctors sleeve brush against her skin.

_What was he doing, why was she in pain? What did they do while she was asleep? Why can't she think straight? Why can't she access her old processor memories? _It was extremely frustrating for an AI to have so many un-answered questions.

Suddenly she heard machines rolling over to her chair and partially blocked her view from the lights. The machine scanned her body and moments later she heard the doctor typing quickly on the keyboard. She felt like she was going to throw up, the suspense was high and she had no idea what was going on. She heard a loud 'ding' and suddenly out of the corner of her eye she saw needles slowly approaching her head. She closed her eyes tears streamed down her face. Her body tensed and locked up completely and awaited the suspending pain. But she wasn't prepared for what happened next. She felt at once 10 needles enter her body and released a cold frost bite feel throughout her body. She cried out in pain and pulled at the straps. In a few moments she felt the needles leave her body a wave of adrenaline rushed through body. She was shaking in shock and had a stronger wanting to throw up.

"What. Did. You. Do." Her voice was filled with anger. She kept her eyes tightly shut

The doctor silently shifted and held a mirror to her face. She slowly opened up her eyes and looked at the mirror. She couldn't believe what she saw.

Her eye's a usual electric blue had a bright purple surrounding her pupils mixed in with the blue.

_She knew now everything, the puzzle pieces fell into place. Nothing would be the same anymore, she was not the same. She never would be again._

"This is only the beginning, Cortana." His voice sounded like venom.

**There you go folks! Hope you are enjoying the story! I love the reviews and I am so happy that you guys are taking the time to give me feedback! Please, if you have any suggestions for the story tell me! Thanks again, you guys are the best! **


	8. Everything's A Test

He was trained to appreciate silence and to use it to his advantage, always. But when you're trapped in a Pelican that's small to a Spartan for more than 5 hours you get frustrated. Normally on these missions he was making contact with the squad teams, Commander Lasky or Sarah. But he was alone this time; the faint buzz in the back of his helmet of a dead radio filled his ears. He remembered on long missions like these Cortana would fill the room with her continues stories and facts. He never got tired of it, just quietly listened and enjoyed the company. Perhaps he took it for granted.

_He hated silence._

He cleaned his guns each at least 10 times even though they were spotless to begin with. He paced back and forth enough times to put a hole in the floor and he already searched though all the supplies numerous times. Eventually he gave up and sat down in the chair and let his thoughts take over his mind. For the first time it dawned on him if Cortana was alive who had her and what were they doing to her? Was it like the Gravemind, slowly driving her to madness? Prodding at her memories and her information against her will? What if she was in pain? What if it was too late? What if she doesn't remember anything? What if she doesn't remember _him_?

He cringed at the thought, what if everything they had done together, everything they have been through has been removed from her mind, and it was too late.

_"I won't recover from Rampancy, Chief."_ Her voice echoed through his head in a whisper.

_What if he was wrong about the location, what if she's not even there? What if he finds her dead? What will he do with himself? If he fails can he go back to Infinity? What if she doesn't want to come back with him…?_

That last question sat in his head like fog. What if she didn't want to come with him, he didn't keep his promise he failed her, maybe she hated him.

_He'd take that chance._

He shut his eyes tightly; he wasn't used to all the different emotions. Now he understands why regular civilians couldn't defend themselves, they would get too distracted by emotion.

_Was he feeling emotion?_

No he was a Spartan, he had no emotion.

Or does he?

His thoughts wrapped around his mind tightly suffocating him from his focus. He forced himself to relax back in his chair and rest.

5 minutes had passed when he heard his radar start beeping. He opened his eyes and saw it was lite up red surrounding his aircraft. He jumped to his feet, and out of habit checked his loaded ammo and guns. He grabbed his Magnum and stood ready by the windows; he glanced around and saw a moderate sized aircraft coming straight for him. He flung himself by the controls and pulled upward hard out of the way, that ship appears to be on a suicide mission. He took sharp turns and starting firing the exterior guns. With his enhanced vision he could see Covenant in the fogged window glass, controlling the ship.

_Why would the attack him now, surely they would of known he was here 10 minutes ago?_

He pulled down quickly and took a hard right when he saw planet in the distance. He checked his panel, and it was titled:

"Unknown"

He grunted they must be outbound protectors. He continued to fire but the ship wouldn't back down, he tried aiming at the sensitive parts of the ship but still nothing. The Pelican took a good beating and alarms were sounding at a blaring volume, he tuned them out. Suddenly 3 more ships sped up around him and he was completely surrounded. He pulled up hard trying to get out of the box but one of them caught he side wing and shot at his engines.

_This doesn't look good. _

He hurled down towards the unknown planet and everything came into view more quickly then what he would have preferred. He tried to regain control of the ship when he launched down at a 90 degree angle and his body flew back and slammed into a wall. The alarms filled his head and he looked out the window noticing the detail, and the ground. The ships pulled back to avoid crashing, but instead he did.

Everything went dark.

oOoOoOoO

Cortana couldn't breathe; no she didn't want to breathe anymore. Nothing was worth it, not even her new human-like body. She lied there like a piece of metal in shock and unable to move, unable to care, unable to feel. She didn't even remember the doctor removing the straps or pushing her off the chair onto the concrete floor. She also didn't remember the Didact entering the room and picking her up and pinning her against the wall. She was his puppet and he was her faith.

"All readings checked out fine Sir. Everything reacted correctly and appears to be in order." The doctor said promptly.

"I'll believe it when I see it." He hissed and walked out of the room. He released her from the wall and she slowly slummed to the floor without a care in the world.

"Oh be a good sport Cortana. We are doing you a favor now man up." The doctor said while looking at some files.

"Man up? Man up!? I have more scars then I can count, I have been put in a coma twice, broken 2 ribs, strapped to a table, injected with 10 needles and you're telling me to man up! What the hell is wrong with you?" She screamed at him clenching and unclenching her fits.

"Has an increased attitude…" He said as he wrote it down on the chart, a grin on his face.

"If there is a hell other than here I hope you and _Kristy _go right to it!" She snapped back.

"Don't talk about her." He whispered.

"Oh? I'm sorry did I hurt the little doctor's feelings? How could anyone love or even _look _at you." She was angry, she's never been this mad at anyone. But what did she care; if she couldn't get out of here she might as well torture him.

"Shut up!" He yelled and smacked her across the face.

"You're going to regret that." She hissed.

_It's time to see what she can do._

Her processors were extremely slow, as If her mind was running 2 miles a nanosecond. She was frustrated; she didn't have enough energy to even do a bio scan on herself to see what they injected in her. _"I'll believe it when I see it." _Whatever the Didact meant by that it must be a number of tests.

"I'll do it." She said suddenly turning her red check towards the doctor.

"Do what…?" But he stopped himself already knowing the answer.

"I'll cooperate, let's start." She said this time more surely and with a new found confidence. If she could learn her abilities and access her old possessors maybe she had a shot of getting out of here, or at least surviving.

"Follow me." He looked unsure with her sudden mood to cooperate then his face changed to determination as he led her out of her prison and into her future.

oOoOoO

John woke up; his head was pounding and felt like his body was cement unable to move. Smoke of the crashed Pelican swirled around him as he checked his armor. Most of the armor took the impact; his shields were slowly recharging and he was able to start moving his arms and checking himself. He had a few sprains, maybe a broken rib and a moderate concussion nothing major. His shields finally got back online and his HUD lit up.

_Why are there no enemies, they should be surrounding him right now._

He grunted at the thought as he slowly got up on his feet and cracked his shoulder back into place. He looked around at his new unknown surroundings. It was a jungle with lush green leaves and strange looking flowers. He looked up to the right of the sun; it was about noon but even John new that wasn't the real sun.

"_I can give you over forty thousand reasons why I know that sun isn't real…"_

He shook the thought out of his head and scanned for enemies making sure the area was clear. Once he was positive there was nobody around, not even a single annoying grunt he searched the ruins of the Pelican. It was without a doubt not flyable and he had to find a new ride out of here. He found a few usable guns; 80% of the ammo was trashed and the only food rations he had was what was on his armor. Of course, food was his last concern he could go weeks without it thanks to his training. After he took what was left of the Pelican he decided which direction to go.

_The smoke should attract them and I can see which direction they come from and head in that direction. Since I have no idea where I am, but I hate waiting. Do I take the risk of picking from my gut or wait for a more educational guess._

He did a 360 around and closed his eyes, if Cortana was here she would tell me where everything is, _where I am. _He glanced at his compass he was currently facing North-West, he searched through his memory – when he was flying towards his coordinates he was going North-East. The Covenant attacked him from possibly the South-East. He glanced at the river about 100ft from him it was flowing away from him. He decided he would follow the river upstream, maybe that would led him to some sort of civilization.

oOoOoO

When the door opened Cortana placed her hands up against her eyes the florescent lights hurt compared to the darkness. She was practically expecting something to jump out and attack her but instead it was just the doctor leading her down a straight hallway. The hallways were all white which reminded her of the many labs she's worked in. The doors were to the left and right of her; all of them had metal signs with numbers, 223…224…225…So on. The doctor stopped at 231 and turned around to face her before opening the door.

"Your first test is close combat. We want to see how much your body can handle with your new…Injections." He said with a grim face.

She frowned "How could you get accurate data when you didn't even have a baseline of when I was before injected."

"We already have that information, Cortana." He said her name slowly which made her feel once again – small.

She opened her mouth to reply but he turned around and opened the door by placing his hand on a scanner. It was a bright white room with nothing in it but a pedestal.

"Oh, do I get to fight you again? I am starting to like this." She smirked.

"No." He said simply and proceeded towards the panel on the pedestal. He paused and typed quickly before she could look over his shoulder to see what he was doing. The panel lite up and what appeared to be folded clothes projected in front of them.

"What am I doing your laundry?" She hid laughter in her voice.

He shot her a look, "No, go put these on." He reached for the clothing and suddenly they seeped with color and became something tangible. She stood there with her mouth open.

"How…?" She couldn't even find the words to finish her question.

"There are a lot of things you have yet to learn Cortana. The UNSC was merely a speck of knowledge in our galaxy. "He gestured her towards a door that wasn't there when they entered the room before. She looked at him and he just smiled.

"Maybe before I do combat you should check my eyesight first, I didn't notice that door before." She side glanced at him.

"Maybe that's because the door wasn't there before." He opened the door and she walked in. It was a small room once again white and was barely big enough to stretch her arms out all the way. He tossed her the clothes and shut the door in her face. She watched his shadow from under the door as he walked away. She looked down at the clothes; they were black and made of rough material. She was happy to get out of her disgusting gown. As she got dressed she couldn't stop thinking about how the door appeared and the clothes out of hard light. How was that even possible, she prodded at her thoughts looking for an explanation but thought of nothing. She looked down at herself she was in something that looked similar to what Spartans wore under there armor. It fit her exactly, and she couldn't help but smile. She could wear clothing now, she could pick things now. The outfit matched her hair perfectly with tones of gray and she stood out in the white room. She opened the door slowly and the doctor looked up.

He looked surprised then quickly covered up with his usual bored looking face.

"It took you 3:47:56 minutes" He sighed looking at this watch.

"I didn't know that was a test." She crossed her arms.

"Everything's a test Cortana." He gave her an evil smile.

**There you go! Sorry it took so long to update, sports. Please give me reviews on this chapter or any chapter for that matter (Negative or Positive)! Also, if you want to assist be with the story, give me suggestions or write your own piece to throw in PM me! Thank you so much guys! Remember to review, like and follow!**


	9. Update: Authors Note

**Hey Everyone! I just want to take a moment to thank all my readers and everyone who has reviewed the story so far! Thank you all for being cooperative with me and my busy schedule! We are not even half way through the story yet folks so please if your enjoying the story hang with me! The next chapters from here on are going to be VERY intense and major plot twists. I will hopefully get the next chapter out by Friday afternoon. (I wish I could write now but I have a million lacrosse games!) Also thank you for everyone who has contributed so far, JustNightCrawling has been a huge help and your going to see some of his awesome pieces in the upcoming chapters! Make sure to check out his story, "Hudson: A Spartans Journey! **

**Thank You Everyone! **

**~Halo4Ever**


	10. Guardian

John was frustrated – no that was an understatement. He was furious; at the Covenant, the stupid grunts, the pelican crashing, being lost, being on an unknown planet, no ammo, no supplies, the ignorance, the idea of Cortana and furious at himself.

_How am I going to get off this stupid planet?_

_"__Now would be a very good time to leave!" _He smiled at the memory. But he felt this tug to the words as if it's pulling his thoughts to another place. Something was different, something was off. He turned quickly and scanned the area suddenly feeling like someone was watching…Or _something._

He frowned at not knowing what was around him; he decided that walking was his best option until he came up with something new. But the ignorance was setting in and he actually felt paranoid. Every noise was like a whisper in his ear, causing him to quickly turn which just irritating his injuries from the crash.

Just then he heard noises that he knew a little too well, the battle cries of The Covenant.

"The Spartan is approaching, Hunters, Jackals, Brutes you take the front line, Grunts, you take the Ghosts, and circle him!" A Brute yelled in a deep, intimidating growl.

He reached for his, Magnum, Assault Rifle and his grenades, both Plasmas and Frags.

"You monster!" A bastardly Grunt howled wildly, suddenly two Ghosts were circling around him.

He approached the first one, he grabbed onto the back of it, and held the Grunts head without him noticing, "AHH!" It screamed in his ear, John pulled out his Magnum, and blew the Grunts brains out, he then jumped over to the next one, placing a plasma grenade, and in no time, watched it explode into a million pieces.

He then blew over a ton of Jackals with his Assault Rifle, taking them down, one by one. John quickly glanced around at what he had left and noticed that his rifle was running out of ammo. He lost most of his supplies in the crash; he had to get out of here, but not yet.

Two Hunters approached him, he tried to blast them with the rifle, but it was out of ammo was out so he bashed the Brute that was coming right next to him, probably breaking his neck, then flawlessly he grabbed his energy sword and sliced the two humongous aliens, in half.

He was completely out of ammo, defeated. They kept pouring out of the trees like they were from a never ending source. They were surrounding him and he was growing tired trying to defend himself with no weapons. His shields were taking a lot of heat and everything was flashing red on his visor. One of them hit him in the side right into his supposedly broken rib, he grunted, he responded by grabbing its neck and hearing a satisfying snap. One of the brutes punched him hard on the head and he lost his balance falling backwards onto the ground. He was dizzy; as he pushed himself quickly off the ground, he snatched a grunt and smashed it hard onto a Jackal, then ran.

His legs burned and he felt like he couldn't get enough air into his lungs. He wished he was as fast as Kelly, she could outrun anything. He tripped over vines and branches as he shoved his way through the jungle, trying to stay ahead as they followed. He heard a buzzing in his ears like a pressure change and his skin began to burn. He looked around frantically trying to find what was causing the burning pain. He slowed to a jog as he entered a clearing. He saw the ghosts coming and he was about to start in a sprint, but then he stopped himself. The ghosts, grunts, jackals and every enemy on his radar froze, as if time stopped. He stood there in awe, and extremely confused. He quickly spun around trying to see what caused the sudden stillness. The enemies walked around the invisible line, not daring to cross it or touch it. He focused his eyes and noticed every second or so he saw a slight glimmer to the air –something was here.

One of the stupid grunts ignored everyone else's hollers and barking as he walked toward me. I stood there unable to move and waited to see what would happen. It walked towards me reaching its hand out as if it was trying to see something. John noticed its eyes were not on him but something in front of him, but all John saw was air.

He stood there pondering if he would seize the opportunity and run to get ahead, but he hated not knowing, he wanted to understand. The grunt unexpectedly jumped forward and in seconds there was a loud crack, as if there was a bolt of lightning, then the grunt disappeared.

John tensed, now he was afraid to move. He stood there not knowing what to do. He held his breath for what felt like hours, but nobody moved a muscle. Then a thought occurred to him,

_How could I pass without denigrating? Was that why he felt a burning sensation on his skin, was that him crossing into this barrier? What was the barrier…?_

He felt this warmth on his skin, not the burning from before he looked around once again very confused.

"You have a strong heart, child." A very familiar voice greeted him.

He spun around and held his breath, the Librarian stood in front of him. He opened his mouth, but closed it not knowing what to say.

"You are on the right path, guardian. I am here to guide you into the near future of which humanity will face its ultimate battle." She spoke softly like she had this all planned out. But he did not feel that way, instead of asking her the obvious questions of where he was, what the supposed war was, he asked her a question that has angered him for so long,

"If you knew that without evolving me so I could withstand the Composer, the Didact would have defeated me, then you knew Cortana was going to die."

She contemplated this for a moment then answered, "Yes. I knew."

He suddenly was filled with rage and he clenched his fists and every sense he was supposed to be focusing on drained from him. He wasn't used to all of this emotion, he should be finding a new objective, how to get out of here, but instead he was focusing on _her _again.

"Why didn't you save her? Why didn't you warn her so we could circumvent this issue?" He was raising his voice, something yet again like his emotions he rarely done.

"I know you are in a great deal of pain, but that was something that had to be done. You must understand…"

"That's she's dead? That's she's gone and I completely cut myself from the UNSC on a slim chance that she was alive and your here to tell me now that I was wrong?" He cut her off.

Instead of answering his question she continued, "You must understand that _Cortana_ is the center of this whole situation, she is the thin line between humanity surviving and its extinction." She paused letting him absorb the new information.

He couldn't find words to respond to her, instead his posture relaxed and he just stared at her.

"She is suffering and she is not going to last much longer." She stopped again down.

His relaxed posture didn't last long and he tensed at the words and questions spilled from his mouth, breaking the silence.

"She's _suffering_? Who is hurting her? Where are they? What do they want from her?" The Librarian raised her hand and began to speak.

"I am running out of time to explain, but I will tell you this. She is alive, she is fighting, and she holds the key to the evolution of the _galaxy, _a key even the Forerunners have not yet attained completely. I am here to get you on the right path, because you _Guardian _are the only person who can protect her, and humanity." She spoke calmly but stress filled her tired features.

This was a lot to take in, he had so many questions. But now he had an objective and the questions had to wait, Cortana needed him. After her sacrifice he wasn't going to let her suffer any longer.

"I must warn you, this mission will be like no other and you will face great depths of pain. If you're too late, you cannot save her, if she is gone, you must finish it." She spoke sternly.

"What do you mean finish it?" Uneasiness filled his voice, and once again the emotions flooded him.

"Even with my assistance it may be too late. They are planning to use her as weapon to defeat humanity; they will rip whatever form of her you knew before. If she has reached that point, you have to kill her." Her voice cut through him like knives.

Before he could protest or ask more questions she spoke quickly.

"We need to go; do you accept the circumstances of the mission?" She rushed the words.

"Whatever it takes." He nodded.

"Let us begin." She placed her hand on the shoulder plate of his armor, closed her eyes, and they disappeared.

oOoOoO

"Are you ready to begin Cortana?" He spoke as he wrote stuff on his clipboard.

"Can you at least tell me the purpose of all these tests?" She rolled her eyes.

"We are seeing how much you can handle in your new state, we are testing everything…Including your emotions. Now shut up and get on the platform. "She shoved her forward and hurried off into the glass room. She heard the door lock with a click and suddenly all the bitterness she held moments ago switched to fear.

_Why would he lock the door, surly he's not afraid of her…?_

She swallowed and took a deep breath; this was no time for fear. She had to survive – Whatever it takes.

Laser beams formed around her tracing the room with a sharp light, suddenly a Hunter appeared beside her.

_She's going to die._

It pounced at her at once and she sprinted to the other end of the room.

"Is this the physical or the emotional test?" She screamed at the doctor, through the glass.

She scanned the room and noticed she was given no weapons.

"No weapons? How good do you think I am?" She screamed once again and dodged the Hunter who was firing its overpowered weapons.

Finally after what felt like hours his voice broke over the intercom, she thought she heard him grunt annoyed.

"I thought you were smarter than this, _think _Cortana _think." _He spoke sternly.

The Hunter charged toward her and she barely dodged the loud blast of its fuel rod. The beam skimmed her right shoulder tearing the suits fabric and blood took its place. She clenched her teeth and tightened her fists, but she didn't cry – they did not deserve the satisfaction. She closed her eyes tightly, pushing her mind through to her processors straining her way into the system;

_[Mgalekgolo are the strongest and most resilient species in the Covenant.A Mgalekgolo usually stands between twelve to thirteen feet tall, but crouches to between eight to eight-and-one-half feet when in its combat state to protect its unarmored stomach and neck. A Mgalekgolo can become larger than even a standard Covenant Wraith.]_

That wasn't going to help her, she had to keep trying. Suddenly she found her way in and broke through the inflexible walls of the system, she felt the power drain into her, she felt strong, and she felt unbeatable. He eye's snapped opened, the purple in her eyes drained away and was overpowered with blue. The faint lines of light blue under her skin glowed through her, ten times stronger than they were before. She took a deep breath in then screamed out releasing the energy she detained moments ago, causing a loud bang and an energy force that rushed through the room, knocking the doctor over. The Hunter flashed and broke into millions of pieces like stars in a sky. The pieces floated around her glowing body, the florescent lights in the room turned off and on finally shattering like the Hunter.

Just as her power came, it left. Suddenly she felt the sensations around her; the pain in her shoulder, the floor beneath her feet, and a sharp stab in her head. She reached up and grabbed her head falling to the floor. The room filled with darkness, and emergency lights flickered in its place.

"That was outstanding!" The doctor hurried out of his glass room and rushed over to her. He leaned over and grabbed her shoulders and shook her as if she missed the whole thing.

"Your bio readings went off the charts, power waves only possible by some of the largest machines! How did you access all the power from the system when you're even in your premature stages of your new processors? It doesn't matter, I need to run tests now…" He looked down at her as if he was a little kid and received a gift. It disgusted her. In the midst of his rambling he paused and looked up at the shadow above her.

The Didact stood there and before she could even tilt her head to meet his face he flung her against the wall and in 2 easy strides caught her by pinning her against the wall.

She couldn't even look at him, his face was hideous and he smelled disgustingly of rotting flesh. He smiled at her flashing his yellow pointed teeth.

"You hold great power, and I intend of using all of it. Enjoy the control while you can, soon I will control you and your power, and the Guardian will be dead." His smile grew and he dropped her to the floor.

_What has she done? What does he mean? What is he planning?_

She crawled her way away from the wall, she was coughing and dry heaving since there was nothing in her stomach. He arms shook as she stood up; the pain in her shoulder grew. The doctor was hastily writing information down switching from panel to panel. The Didact walked away towards another door that appeared before him.

"Don't give all your faith to the Guardian Cortana, hope isn't going to save you." He and the doctor rushed out of the door leaving her with her thoughts and the glowing red of the emergency lights.

It suddenly occurred to her who the Guardian was,

John.

**Hey everyone! Okay I am going to start by saying I am SO sorry for not updating. I have been extremely busy and have had no time to write! I also wanted to thank JustNightCrawling for pieces of the battle scenes with Chief, I will collaborating with him more in the future! For those of you who also don't know Halo 5 has finally been announced its actual title by 343 Industries "Halo 5 Guardians". Also it is 99% confirmed it will be releasing in fall of 2015. Please review and give me your negative or positive feedback. I know I have a lot of grammar issues which I will soon be addressing. **


	11. Reclamation

John felt as if his whole body melted, his knees felt weak and the only thing holding him together was the metal hardware around him. Usually teleporting was an onerous process but this was different, and he was glad to be off that planet. His eye's came into focus, and he shifted to catch his balance. The Librarian was already ahead of him in a hurry and it only took 3 easy strides to catch up to her.

He turned to face her and winced at the pain in his side from the crash, which brought up the next question.

"Did you know I was going to crash?" He mumbled.

"Yes, but I didn't know I'd have to send that many to bring you down." She reached a panel and began typing at too fast a speed for him to understand.

"You sent them?" Surprise filled his voice.

"Yes, I had to get you to the barrier. Once you reached the planet I guided you there." She glanced at him and continued working.

"Why the barrier, couldn't you have reached me in the ship?" He felt a moment of annoyance he could still have a Pelican with supplies and ammo.

"I was in a protected force field; if I left it would've collapsed leaving me _and _you venerable." She didn't look up his time.

He looked around the room and felt himself drawn to the detail, he knew this place.

"The Ark?" He said in awe as he looked around. This time she turned completely and meet his wondering eye's through his orange visor.

"A piece of it, we are underground, buried beneath miles of debris and sand." She paused for a moment, testing his reaction.

"But the premature firing should have…" She cut him off.

"There are many things in this galaxy that I do not know, they are meant to be untouched and found by another. You must understand that time is an illusion, created by the naked eye, something to create and build off of when really; it is too complex for even the most inquisitive minds. Your task is not a mission, nor an objective. This is destiny that you must face whatever the consequences. You are no longer military hardware to the UNSC or humanity; you are the Guardian of humanity." She stopped for a moment letting it sink in then quickly snapped her head to the right and practically through herself towards the panel, panic crossing her features.

"There is no more time, you need to go. You must discover the answers to your questions on your own." She gestured toward a panel to the left of them for him to walk on.

He had so many questions, he wanted to ask her everything, and hated so little information. Before she teleported him he asked one more question.

"Where is she?" He spoke quickly.

"Follow the voices." Her voice faded and his view of her vanished as he headed to an unknown location, with humanities fate resting on his shoulders.

oOoOoO

Cortana rested corporately on the table as the doctor patched her now infected shoulder. Of course, she was strapped down so being uncooperative was not really an option.

"I still don't know how you did it." He spoke excitedly as he rapped the bandages around her shoulder.

"I'm so glad you _finally _impressed the Didact with your little experiment." She spat the words in his face, the typical tone of their conversations.

"Stop being selfish, you hold a vast amount of power and you're taking it for granted." He turned around and reached for more tools off of the sterile medical tray. She wanted to rip his throat out and send powerful energy waves through him so he and the Didact would die a slow painful death.

But she couldn't do that.

"What, am I so amazing that I don't have to do anymore tests and you give me full access to my processors?" She spoke halfheartedly.

"You are going through a mental test today, to see….what you can truly handle" He smiled at her as he stood up leaving her strapped on the metal table.

She didn't like the sound of that, her body tensed at the hard reality. She closed her eyes and let fear seep through her body; she let her adrenaline spike and her mind calculate the worst outcomes of the situation. She felt fear, she was scared and she needed to be free. She pushed her way through the system, letting her mind shove and gather all the information. She felt her heart race and the information seep into her veins. The light blue processors beneath her glowed and she felt the power once again. He eyes were a bright unnatural blue and she yanked her way free from the straps. She felt as if she could only partially control herself but she didn't care. She ignored the pain in her head and pressed forward. The doctor stumbled backward fear consumed his face as he rushed away from her. She released the energy no longer being able to contain it and bright blue light consumed the room, pushing away the darkness. Everything slowed down, she watched in slow motion the doctor flying across the room slamming into the metal wall.

Everything around her shimmered and the walls turned transparent that was foggy like water. She saw patterns and images traced into the wall like codes and symbols. She captured all of it and it was breath taking. She could see beyond the walls and saw layers of minerals. She saw past the layers of earth and saw the stars, something she hasn't seen in a while. With a flash everything was sucked back in, the light rushed toward her. Everything was back in its natural state and she was on her knees, gasping for air.

Instead of standing up and taking advantage of her freedom she felt weak as if she was made of water. She collapsed forward and let her body press against the metal floor. The doctor stood up with amazement and stumbled forward toward her. He grabbed his glass and placed them back on the bridge of his nose and knelt beside her. He examined her, picking up her arms and taking notes, moving her aside. She didn't even care, she felt paralyzed.

"It all makes sense now!" He threw his hands up in the air.

"Glad you figured it out." Her voice was scratchy as she spoke the words. She coughed and sat up, but the doctor quickly grabbed straps and tied her hands behind her back.

"You have enough power to access all of the forerunners bio-readings and information. Similar to the Janus Key, you can consume all the information and transfer it into shockwave energy. Releasing it causing an eruption in the entire system, but you can only do this when you are scared or you hold fear." He was looking off into the distance as if he was reading something from the air.

She just nodded and immersed what he was telling her, unable to comprehend everything. She glanced at the doctor who looked dazed as if he was in another universe, she only wished he was.

"If the Forerunners controlled that power, they wouldn't hold the mantel they would _own_ it." He shook his head unable to believe it himself. She suddenly came to a realization.

"You don't understand do you?" She looked straight ahead as she spoke not meeting his eyes.

"What do you mean?" His head snapped toward her.

"Wake up! Wake up from whatever reality the Didact has placed you in, whatever he has told you to keep you from leaving and going against him!" She screamed at him, letting her angry release at him.

"I don't understand…" She cut him off.

"If the Forerunners controlled that power humanity would be wiped out completely, including you! Don't you get it? This entire plan is to destroy humanity and control every other living thing in the galaxy. If the Didact gets his hands on this he will be consumed with power breaking him from whatever common sense he has left!" She choked the last words.

They sat there in silence, she studied the doctor and for the first time he looked betrayed and guilty, as if this whole time he had been brainwashed and until this moment he finally realized what he has been truly doing.

"The reclamation has already begun, and we are hopeless to stop it." She whispered breaking the silence.

**Alright guys, short chapter! Hopefully I will be updating more frequently. Sorry for the spelling errors, I will soon be doing a big update to all the chapters and fixing everything I have messed up on. Please review and give me your thoughts. Thanks to all of you who have stuck with the story I really appreciate it! If you have any ideas or changes you want to help me with or make, please don't hesitate to PM me! Thanks! **


	12. Eventuality

The doctor had left Cortana in peace; surprisingly he left without a word. Cortana sat there staring at the ceiling trying to image the stars she saw minutes ago. A single tear drifted down her scared cheek and hit the cold lifeless floor. She closed her eyes and wished for it all to go away, she didn't want this power she would trade it all away just to be free. For the first time in days she actually felt the smallest moment of peace, being alone in a room with no chains or straps. Of course, that didn't last long.

The doctor walked in with his usual cold expression and knelt beside her. Cortana was surprised to see he had no clipboard or plastic restrains that made her skin raw. Instead he just looked at her, Cortana noted he was tense and looked like he was about to speak something he might regret. They sat there in silence when finally the doctor spoke.

"I haven't seen the outside for six months now." He said sadly. She didn't respond and allowed him to keep talking.

"I was on a high level mission, to gather DNA samples for the UNSC. I was captured by the guards and brought to the Didact. In exchange for my life I would work for him, but I didn't want to. I was locked up in a small cell for day's maybe weeks, I attempted suicide three times." He choked the last words and took a deep breath then continued,

"I didn't want to work for him especially when I was given my experiment, you." She was shocked by his words and for the first time looked at him.

"I knew who you were right away, everyone knew who you were." He sighed.

"How did you know who I was?" Her voice was merely a whisper.

"The moment Master Chief stepped off the extraction team's ship, we knew something was wrong. Word spread quickly and days later I was sent on the mission with other Spartans and ODST's request of OIN." He took a deep breath and looked over to see her reaction.

"There were others?" She spoke sadly as the reality came to her in waves.

"The mission commander Chris Walker and a Spartan IV Kelly Jones escaped successfully with the samples. ODST Jenna Carlton and Mathew Turner were killed, and Spartan Ryan Miller and I were captured." He looked away, his eyes glazed over.

"Your Troy Taylor." She added.

"How did you know?" He raised an eyebrow.

"I still have bits and pieces of UNSC files in my memories, plus I've been in the lab more than anyone. I now recognize your face since you have been in the UNSC lab for 11 years." She spoke slowly.

"Yes…" He nodded slowly.

"You were sent there for samples? What did ONI want?" Her voice held a bitter edge four people were victims of this and surely ONI wouldn't send them on a suicide mission, would they?

"There were sightings of Prometheans that had different bio readings." He stopped and looked at her to see if she was catching on.

It finally occurred to her that the different bio readings were caused by her DNA.

"You mean the Didact…" He finished the sentence for her.

"The Didact had you captive before I was captured. He already had your DNA and injected it into others. This is what caused them to have their blue appearance." He pinched the bridge of his nose, his face filled with frustration.

The thought of the Didact having her unconscious body without her knowing it made her feel weak.

"That means the samples are back on Infinity in the labs, the samples contain my DNA. Why didn't the system pick up on that and match it to my files?" She was trying to pair all the pieces together.

"I don't know who would have tested them?" He glanced at her with a perplex look on his face.

"Dr. Halsey." She whispered. He looked at her surprised.

"Wouldn't she of all people pick up on it?" He said annoyed.

"Maybe someone didn't want her to…" Her voice trailed off with the thought.

"It doesn't make sense." He clenched his fists together.

"Why didn't they send an extraction team after you?" Cortana shifted her weight onto the wall beside her, she felt as if she was going to fall over.

"To high risk…" He spoke the words as if the thought has never occurred to him.

"But if it was this dangerous, if it was this high ranked, why didn't ONI take action on it…" She looked up at the ceiling as if the answers would appear above her.

"I don't know." He looked down.

"Someone on the inside." She stood up quickly.

"What…?" She cut him off.

"Someone is on the inside, controlling the whole situation. Someone is plotting everything so that the samples wouldn't be tested. So myself or this place wouldn't be found – someone who had the power to cover it up under the UNSC's millions of files." She stood up and started pacing, her mind processing the new information.

"Who would have…?" His face was deep with betrayal.

Cortana's eyes flashed open, they had forgotten someone.

"You said Ryan Miller was captured, like you." She turned toward him.

His face fell and he looked around the room as if hoping to see him.

"I…I Don't know what happened to him. I was locked up, we were separated." He stuttered the words.

"Ryan Miller, is a traitor." Her words sounded like knives.

"No…He…" The doctor stumbled backwards against the wall as if he was going to faint.

"He…" The doctor repeated again.

"He is what?" Cortana walked up to him and shook his shoulders.

"He's my son." Cortana released his shoulders and stepped back as the doctor slid to the floor.

"Was that the leverage the Didact had on you this entire time?" She spoke softly.

The doctor nodded and placed his head in his hands. The door opened harshly and a dark shadow stood in its frame. The Didact walked in and with a flick of his wrist pinned the doctor against the wall. The doctor thrashed against his, he was suffocating.

"I see you finally figured it out." He sounded annoyed.

"Let go of him!" Cortana flung herself at the Didact but the Didact used his other hand and sent her flying across the room in the opposite direction.

Her vision was unclear as she tried to stand up and walk toward the doctor. But she stumbled and fell forward landing on her elbows. The Didact turned his body 180 so the doctor dangled in front of her, he reached for a device she knew well.

"No!" She screamed as she reached toward the doctor but it was too late. The Didact activated the energy sword and with one easy move the energy sword pierced through his chest. Blood tricked from his body onto her. She continued to scream; she was horrified and couldn't move. The Didact dropped the now limp body next to her and looked down meeting her bloodshot eyes.

"That was your mental test." He turned around and with 4 strides was out the door in seconds.

She laid there with her head facing away from the blood pool and Troy Taylors body until she finally fell unconscious.

**Hey guys! I hope you guys like where the story is heading! This is defiantly a ground breaker in the story, you guys were just thrown a lot of information! If you want a visual image of Ryan Miller then please look up the Halo 5 concept art that was released only days ago. It ironically fell nicely in line with my story, especially the legitimate blue visor. Thank you for reading this far, please review (negative or positive) or send me a PM with your thoughts! I may not be able to post a new chapter until Wednesday. Thanks Again!**

**[[Update: I made a few grammar fixes to this chapter, just recently noticed I put ION (like ion television) and not ONI. In my defense, I was watching Burn Notice on ION TV…Ahem. Anyways! I know there still are ****_a million _****errors (trust me) and I'm trying. If grammar is your pet peeve please PM me with constructive criticism. Thank You!]]**


	13. Luck

He only trusted a handful of people; Johnson, Cortana, Miranda, Commander Lasky, Arbiter and a few of his old friends like Kelly and Fred. Other than the small list forming in his head he already felt an unpleasant distrust against the supposed "Ryan Miller". Normally, Cortana would say a witty comment in his internal speakers to pull off the depression that was sinking on his chest. But she didn't, she wasn't there. This pulled his thoughts to Johnson, the way he fell on the floor holding Cortana's chip in his hand.

"Never let her go Chief, don't _ever _let her go." It was his last words before he inhaled his last breathe of the smoke filled air.

But he did fail Johnson, he had let Cortana go and the whole time she was trying to tell him that she was slowly dying and she was painfully pulling herself together long enough to return to earth, when really the un-needed side missions of the stubborn UNSC got in the way. He had always put the UNSC first before anyone else, even before his most trusted companions. They just sent him away like that, like he never even mattered when really his success was at the cost of the people he cared about most. Yet he still lived, playing their lives like coins in a gambling process and yet _he _was still alive. Now he was stranded here in the middle of nowhere with little previsions and all while talking to a guy named "Ryan Miller" with a bright blue visor that painfully reminded him of her.

The orange visor masked his expression, while the armor was the only thing that kept him standing against the pressure of the emotional thoughts that he was not used to. Of course throughout the entire process he held his stance, his assault rifle steady and asked the most obvious question that managed to reach the front of his thoughts.

"Who are you?" He kept the assault rifle pointed in his direction.

"I already told you…" He cut him off before he could finish.

"_What _are you, _who _sent you?" Annoyance filled his voice.

"I was sent from ONI." She said quickly.

"Look, if it's about the hacked files…" He stopped himself quickly.

"Files…?" He raised an eyebrow.

_Damit._

"How did you find me?" He shifted his stance slightly.

"For someone that stayed under the radar for 4 years, you sure are easy to track." He said bored as he took a step closer to him, practically matching his height. He noticed he had a new Spartan armor, something that he had never seen before. But still, the blue visor made him feel unsettled.

"That's not possible." Now he was angry, he had no tracking devices on him or on any of his weapons. Not even the best ONI officer, person, whatever could find him.

Meaning he wasn't ONI. As if reading his thoughts, he responded.

"This isn't a normal day, Master Chief. Nothing is normal now; you are simply denying the trust of discovering un-normality." He took out his weapons and dropped them at his feet before continuing.

"You need me more then you realize because I am the map to your thoughts…" He paused waiting for his reaction.

_He realized he wanted to punch him in the face. _

"Let me cut to the chase." He spun around and in 3 easy strides meant chief visor to visor.

"I know where she is."

OoOoOo

Cortana woke up with the usual headache and painful joins. But this time, the memories of the doctor's limb body flooded her mind and she opted to just lay there and pretend she was still knocked out.

That never worked.

The door flung open with a loud smash, and she didn't even bother to look up. She was dragged out of the room, down the hall way and into another room all while keeping her eyes shut tightly and pretended that maybe if she opened them she wouldn't be here.

That wasn't true.

She was picked up and placed on a metal table, strapped down and venerable. All while still keeping her eyes closed. Maybe when she opens her eyes she would wake up from this horrible and not exist.

That isn't real.

Eventually she opened her eyes and noticed needles were injected in her, again and again. Taking her DNA and possibly copying it to make this nightmare real forever, for everyone.

She didn't care.

Of course, that wasn't the truth. Deep down she did care, she wanted to survive, she wanted to go home and warn the UNSC of this horrible forthcoming possibility. But she couldn't…Or could she? She wanted to try and access her locked away "powers" but she was too weak, and the unknown medication that she couldn't even identify was making her drowsy. She never believed in faith, but she did believe in luck. Maybe, someone or something was coming for her, because deep down she knows there is no way she can get out herself. She was running out of time before his plan takes effect. She needs help before her body becomes a robot that will be controlled by a psychopath. Before she explodes like a bomb hurting everyone in her reach.

She needs luck.

**Hey everyone! Short chapter (SUPER BUSY) I hope your liking the story so far, soon I will be getting into the more intense scenes. I know there isn't really a lot of fighting, but I am adjusting and setting the characters correctly before we reach the more important pieces of the story. Thanks for everyone who has stayed with me so far, you guys rock! I am aware of my MANY spelling errors in my most current chapters. I need to stop typing up stories at 1 am when I literally jump out of bed with a new idea! One last thing – If you haven't already defiantly check out the new Halo news from E3! **


	14. Suffering

"Where is she? Is she alright? Is she hurt? Is she still suffering? Has she…" He spilled out questions until he was interrupted by Miller.

"Calm down. Come with me if you want your questions answered." He held up a hand to silence his many questions. He already didn't like him he treated him as if he was beneath him. The strange blue visor made him feel uneasy and questionable. It was as if this energy surrounding him was negative, destructive and yet decisive. He silently grunted and nodded stiffly towards Ryan who took that as an answer that he would follow. They walked in silence for a few moments until he couldn't bare the questions that prodded at his mind.

"Is she alright?" He tried to sound as casual as possible but anyone could hear the worry that drifted into his voice. It wasn't exactly the first question he wanted to ask _or should ask_ but he couldn't help himself.

"I find it rather odd you are so fond of this _machine." _He turned his head slightly towards him as if trying to read is expression through his visor. However, this made him extremely angry and the bitter entered his voice as he grabbed Ryan's shoulder and yanked him to an abrupt stop.

"Is she alright?" He said in a firm tone not letting go of his shoulder.

"I believe you're asking the wrong questions, Master Chief. I think your question should be; _what _is she?" His voice pronounced unchanging as if challenging him. Chief suddenly froze remembering the conversation he had with the Librarian.

_I must warn you, this mission will be like no other and you will face great depths of pain. If you're too late, you cannot save her, if she is gone, you must finish it._

Was it already over, was she already gone? He was sick of the riddles; even the Librarian wouldn't give him the satisfaction of answering his questions. After everything he has sacrificed, after everything _she _has sacrificed couldn't they just answer his damn questions? He spun in front of him stopping him again and looked at his visor imagining his eyes could burn through them. Unfortunately, he didn't have the "terrify the enemy" advantage with his height, for he practically matched him.

"Explain." It was all he could mutter along with his tightening fists.

"She's in an anthropological form, Chief." He sounded bored with frustration hinged in his voice. Chief knew that anthropological was a fancy word for 'human', he had remembered from one of the entertaining talks he had with Cortana on their long flight durations.

_"__Cortana give it a rest you're not going to figure out how to hack into the meeting." It had been hours, and she hasn't stopped trying to hack into the informational meeting between Dr. Halsey and Commander Lasky. _

_"__You really need relationship skills, John." She huffed and crossed her arms._

_"__What do you mean by that?" He tried to sound offended but he couldn't hide amusement he felt by how annoyed she looked._

_"__First of all, never tell a girl she can't figure out how to do something, and second never underestimate me." She turned around and opened another panel._

_"__Okay I'll keep that in mind next time I have a conversation with another person." He smirked and this time didn't deny the small smile that stretched across his face. "What is so important about this meeting anyways?" Cortana usually didn't have this much interest in something this minor, meaning it was something even she didn't know._

_"__It's about the evolution of anthropology." She almost sounded insulted by the question._

_"__Anthro… What?" He didn't understand half of her vocabulary._

_"__Anthropology means human." She said in a matter of fact tone. _

_"__Stop using big words and making me feel uneducated." His smile grew._

_"__If I did that you'd stop thinking I was smart." She finished his statement by exaggerating a hand flip._

_"__Cortana, you know I'd never do that." She was satisfied by that answer and gave him a smile._

The thought felt like an hour, when it was only a few seconds and a pain erupted in his chest by the memory.

"She's human…?" He said in awe, if it wasn't for the helmet Ryan would see his shocked looking face and open mouth.

"Yes." He said more frustrated then before.

"How did that happen?" He spoke to him with still a shocked sound and couldn't shake the feeling. This time however Ryan spun around and looked him, his frustration melting through his visor.

"For someone who has saved the human race more than enough times, you are clearly ignorant and uneducated. You speak as if you were locked in a closet and handed a child's dictionary and a gun." He knew the words were meant to upset him, but he couldn't help but feel the truth in the conversation. He _was _ignorant about the whole situation, and he didn't even know really who he was with or where he was even going. He had been so blinded by finding Cortana that he had forgotten his current state, but who could blame him really? As always, he felt the need to defend himself.

"At least I am focused on helping someone, what about you? You seem like a random guy that apparently just appeared out of know where that obviously isn't with ONI and is constantly critiquing what I think, act and say." Once the words left his mouth he wished he could have taken them back realizing this was his only ticket out of here.

"Who are you to say that I'm not in search for someone as well?" He didn't know for sure but it sounded like he was gritting his teeth.

"Who are you looking for?" They both kept there tense stands.

"I am looking for my father Troy." He spoke quickly, turning around slowly breaking the anxious stare from each other. Suddenly, everything fell together. He was so shocked by his knew revelation that he took a step backwards which caused Ryan to do a quick check around them, expecting enemies.

"Troy Taylor, that's your father." He spoke in a daze.

"How…How did you know that?" He once again stood face to face to him. Chief pondered how he could use this to his advantage. As wise and knowledgeable as he appeared Chief saw the young kid behind the armor brainwashed, yet hopeful.

"Not unless you answer my questions, will I tell you what I know about your father." He crossed his arms and stood straighter. Ryan didn't seem to like the deal and hesitated but after what felt like an hour spoke.

"What do you want to know?" His voice changed to a business like tone.

"Everything."

oOoOoOoOoOoO

Cortana hugged her knees close to her chest, trying to captivate the warmth that was leaving her body. Whatever unidentified medication she was injected with from before made her feel 50 degrees colder. It had been a week (or so she thought) of more injections and tests all giving her painful reactions and body limitations that made her wish she had the ability to turn off her nervous system. But she felt like something different was going to happen today and it worried her. She tried to steady her breaths and focus her mind but she couldn't stop the shaking and the fear that rumbled through her in a matter of seconds. As if on cue (because unfortunately these hunches tend to be always correct) the Didact entered the room, his disgusting features were the center point of his towering form and a smile across his face.

_How could something as inhuman and repulsive as him be able to smile?_

He squared his shoulders, and had this almost more relaxed and less vigorous feel to his other rigorous features.

"Today, you will become the monument to all your sins."

**Hey my super awesome readers. Can you just put your hand of the screen and pretend I am high fiving you? Seriously if you have read this far your my new favorite. Its 1 in the morning and I have at least 20 grammatical errors in this chapter as is. Truthfully, I am sorry about it. It's not intentional for me to be as uneducated as Chief (Haha…Get it no…Okay.) I'll hopefully have more frequent updating. I was having a bit of writers block and a tight schedule. Thanks again!**


	15. Insanity

Chief was surprised by how much emotion that was flowing through his body. He had never let his thoughts just drain through his mouth that was Cortana's job. He also couldn't believe how _stupid _he was by not making the connection of Ryan Miller the MIA Spartan and Troy Taylor, the also MIA Doctor from the hacked files he had read before he departed from _Infinity. _Now he was completely aware of Millers origin and felt a cold sweat break out over his body. This could be dangerous, very dangerous. Not only was Miller supposedly captured by the unknown guards of where he was originally trying to go, but he had the blue appearance…

He could have been injected with Cortana's DNA.

He quickly shifted his stance to avoid falling backwards, unable to hold his own weight anymore. So in the last few minutes, he not only learned that Cortana is alive and human but Ryan Miller was a captured MIA Spartan that most likely held Cortana's DNA. The thought made him sick; he didn't even want to think about how whoever injected him got the DNA from her in the first place.

_What about the importance of the DNA?_

The questions gave him a headache and while Ryan stood there across from him waiting for his question he knew he had to pick them carefully, debating to tell Ryan that he knew who he was, so he decided to circumvent the issue.

"When was the last time you've been on a UNSC ship?" He attempted to sound stern, intimidating.

"Who's to say I'm with the UNSC?" He almost sounded surprised by his question.

"When was the _last _time you were on a UNSC ship?" He repeated himself again hoping for another answer.

Ryan shifted his stance and hesitating before speaking, he noted that he was most likely debating telling him the truth or not. So instead of having to push the question another time, he decided to answer for him.

"You and your father, Troy Taylor were captured during a high risk mission to gather DNA from an unidentified underground base that was guarded by ominous blue guards. You have the same blue color that matches your visor. People were killed; Kelly Jones escaped with the samples that were brought back to _infinity _to be tested." He paused and waited for the information to set in, for the first time Ryan Miller looked venerable.

"I don't know how many _child dictionaries _you assumed I read, but don't underestimate me, and _do not_ get in my way." He spit the last words, Ryan was still speechless. He was surprised by how much anger filled his voice, how much frustration he had and how much he wanted to bring him to the floor.

"I wouldn't burn your bridge just yet Chief. I'm your only direction to Cortana's location." He took a step closer before continuing his threat. "To put it in your narrow perspective, it's much worse than the Gravemind." He couldn't see his face but he would bet he was smiling at his intimidating statement.

_Worse than the Gravemind…That can't be true. Why would he be here, what does he care? _

"Who's holding her?" The most important question, that was still unanswered.

"Why should I tell you?" He stood up straighter.

"Because you need me, otherwise you wouldn't be looking for me." He gritted his teeth.

"Let's view this as an exchange, my… superior wants you, and you want _Cortana_." He emphasized her name.

"What's in it for you?" He tightened his fists.

"Let's just say there are some _promises _I need to keep." With that he drew out a device from his suit. Chief froze waiting for some sort of attack but moments later realized it was a tablet. Chief stood there motionless as Miller typed in a few things and handed the tablet to Chief. He hesitated taking it, but eventually gave in and gripped the hard light in his hands. He stared at this screen, and couldn't breathe. It was a video feed of Cortana, in what could be described as a prison, dark, and no windows.

_"__You fight with many flaws, Cortana." A male voice spoke._

_"__Shut Up." She looked at the man whose back was to the camera. _

_"__What did you say to me?" He took a step closer to her breathing down her neck._

_"__What? Are you deaf?" She looked at him eye to eye sitting herself up on her knees, plastic restraints holding back her arms._

"Is this live?" He turned towards Ryan who stood with his arms crossed nodding slowly. Chief switched his attention back to the tablet.

_"__Listen you rat! Now that Dr. Taylors dead, I am who you obey now. Not that selfish pity doctor who spilled everything out of his ignorant mouth." The man slapped her hard on the face as a finish to the sentence._

Chief gripped the tablet harder hearing the slapping noise ring in his ears. He wanted to strangle the man; he had no right to hit her like that. He glanced at Ryan to see if he knew his apparent father was dead. He started walking away out of earshot from the video. He decided he would deal with him later and continue watching the footage.

_"__You've already preformed millions of tests, what else do you possibly want to know?" She was screaming now, tears in her eyes._

It pained him to see her so hurt he didn't even want to know what other tests she's been through.

_"__If you still possess your rampant clones, if you're stable enough to handle them."_

Even though the camera was not high end quality he could still see the way her faced masked with fear.

_"__No…no…please don't bring them back…please!" Tears streamed down her face and she pressed herself against the wall sobbing uncontrollably. _

Chief screamed and practically punched the tablet in pure anger.

_"__What is all the repugnant noise?" A new voice screamed as the towering figure came through the sliding solid door. _

_"__She's refusing the injection." The man spoke as the new voice walked in giving Chief a better view of the camera. _

Chief practically dropped the tablet seeing now who the new voice was, and judging by Cortana's expression she was surprised to.

Dr. Halsey.

OoOoOoO

Cortana was no longer breathing; she didn't feel the needle enter the vain on her neck. She just stared at her creator with her mouth open.

"Dr.…Dr.…Halsey…?" Her voice shook with a pain filled expression that was stretched across her face.

As if ignoring her Halsey shifted and gazed towards the man who just injected her with the medicine. "The medication should kick in a moment, I recommend you come with be behind the observing glass before this monster explodes." She said plainly as she stiffly turned around, the man following her.

Cortana fell over, her head hitting the metal floor.

_She called me a monster…_

"Doctor Halsey is working with the Didact…" She whispered the words; unable to believe what she was saying was true.

Halsey spun around and looked sternly at her. Cortana noticed her blaring inhumane bright blue eyes that matched her own.

_She is injected, is she even real?_

"Dr. Halsey! Help me please, please just remember please! Think of me, Cortana I am a part of you! Think of the Spartans! Think of Master Chief, John." At the word 'John' her eyes flashed back to a normal state then in an instant went back to the blaring blue eyes. Cortana glanced down and noticed she only had one arm; the other sleeve was tied into a knot of her familiar lab jacket.

Instead of responding she just turned around again and joined the man waiting at the door as they walked out leaving her alone. Moments passed of her just lying there sobbing at what she just witnessed, her creator. Her only mother-like figure is leaving her to die and is working with the same person that tried to kill John over the composer.

She was absolutely disgusted.

Suddenly she felt a stab of pain in her right temple, and her vision become blurry.

_This must be the medication finally kicking in._

Unexpectedly she heard whispers to her right and she snapped her head in the direction of the voices. Then there were surrendering her screaming, talking, intimidating, talking sweetly to her. They were talking at once as if they were right next to her, in the room with her. She began to cover her ears and screamed herself, pulling at her hair, curling into a ball and cried. After what felt like hours she started to beg to whoever could hear.

_I'll miss you...Prime the nuke! Destroy the composer! They don't need you. He doesn't care. It will be okay just close your eyes…Kill him. We will light your way. Don't give in. Stop the Didact. Promise me…You are worthless! Trapped! Follow the Didact! You are not a human. You're a machine! Let your demons guide you…He is never coming for you! He replaced you! I am the monument to all your sins. Find me. Someone help me. Shut up. Pull yourself together. Cortana…Cortana…Cortana! Cortana…_

"Please stop it, just please; I'll do anything just stop it! STOP IT! STOP IT!" She was crying and screaming gasping for air and scratching at the floor like she was trapped. She sucked air into her lungs, letting the energy soak into her mind, the lights began to flicker and she began to shake. She took in all the energy and felt as If she was holding a heavy weight on her chest. She screamed the energy out and noticed the light lines beneath her skin flicker red and purple. The blast of energy flew around the room, knocking her over and slamming her head on the ground. Immediately people and doctors rushed towards her, but she didn't care.

"Someone please help me, someone just help me!" she was moaning as the voices grew softer but she continued to cry as she rocked on the floor.

OoOoOoO

Chief watched in horror as Cortana rolled around on the floor screaming at the voices on she could hear. He watched as the lights flickered and Cortana's eyes flashed red. She screamed as he glimpsed at the amount of energy she just released, than the camera went to static. He threw the tablet violently on the ground and ran towards Ryan who turned around quickly, but not quick enough to stop him from pouncing him to the ground. He heard the flashing of Ryan's shields as he uncontrollably punched Ryan helmet leaving dents and marks all over his blue visor.

"Where is she?" He screamed bashing Ryan repeatedly to hard the sand floor. Ryan did a kick jolt to his stomach and flipped him to the ground and pinned down his arms and looked him right in the eye.

"God Damit you ass hole, calm the hell down and let me help you!" He yelled at Chief who just laid there in silence.

"I'll bring you to her Damit!" He let go of his arms hesitantly getting up, but Chief just continued to lie on the ground.

"Why do you even care?" It was all he could say.

"He killed my father, I want fucking revenge."

**Hey everyone! I know this chapter was all over the place, and I hope it will clear up better for you guys in future chapters. You may notice I added a bit of Spartan Ops information in there and don't worry It will al rap of nicely with the actual storyline. Sorry if the times don't match up with that's currently happening and the end of Spartan Ops, but I just assumed that the whole Spartan Ops time period was only a few days long. You may also notice, Chief and Cortana are kind of losing their sanity…Thanks for reading, you guys rock I'll post sooner or later. PM your thoughts or any contributions you want to add/make to the story. Review! **


	16. Trust

_Dr. Halsey doesn't have orange eyes…Dr. Halsey doesn't have orange eyes…_

The sentence kept repeating in her head, over and over as she rocked on the floor her knees compressed close to her chest.

_Dr. Halsey has grey-blue eyes…Dr. Halsey has grey-blue eyes…_

She finally (apparently hours later) stopped rocking and just rested her head on the cold ground. For some reason the sentences kept repeating over and over and she couldn't figure out why. She closed her eyes and tried to calm her still racing heartbeat.

_"__John, what are you doing? I told you to go right?" She asked puzzled by his sudden change in route._

_"__I know Cortana, but I thought I saw something." He sounded focused and as if he wasn't listening to her._

_"__You saw something? Don't you'd think I'd pick up on that?" She snorted at him._

_"__It was someone not something." He sounded more annoyed as he turned another corner around the dilapidated building._

_"__Oh you mean cadet Charlie Havens? He was just scanning the area…" He cut her off._

_"__He's going to get himself killed Cortana." He whispered as he crouched behind a brush._

_"__Why would you say that? The area's clear according to your radar and my scanning. Chief are you sure your feeling alright you have been going exactly 3 days 4 hours and 27 minutes without sleep." She said promptly. _

_"__I'm fine Cortana, don't worry about me." He was now at a mere whisper as he watched an object move through the bushes next to Cadet Havens. Of course, Cortana picked up on what he was now looking at and tried to hold back a laugh and let it play out. _

_"__There!" He barked to Cortana and raised his assault rifle. _

_"__Chief wait…" Chief held his index finger on the trigger and slowly lowered his gun to the ground._

_"__It's a Cervidae, also known as a deer." She finished her sentence and then started to hysterically laugh. _

_"__That's not funny Cortana I thought he was in danger." He sighed and turned around giving her a cold look on his HUD. _

_"__Master Chief Petty Officer jumps out of aircraft thousands of feet high, battles Covenant and Flood but has a secret of being terrified of deer." She continued to mock him but noticed that he too was smiling._

She smiled at the memory; she shifted her weight so she wasn't leaning on her injured right side and hoped that maybe she could sleep. She closed her eyes when she suddenly came to a realization. When Halsey's eyes flashed back to normal for a nanosecond, they were orange. Not a greyish blue. But, she does know another person who has orange eyes.

The Didact's

OoOoOoOoOoOo

Chief and Ryan stood in silence both of them shaken from the footage of Cortana. He couldn't get it out of his mind, how horrified she looked how she screamed and rocked on the floor. As more minutes passed, he replayed it in his mind and noted other things; Halsey's expression never changed, Cortana had many scars all over her arms and legs. However, Chief recognized those scars – Amputation scars. What appeared to be a fuel rod wound on her right soldier, made him wonder if they had the weapons there or if there were actually Hunters there. Are they being controlled to? But the one key thing he noticed in the footage was the footage. Whoever is holding her was obviously letting Ryan have access to the cameras through his tablet. Unless he stole the tablet…Why would he…? All the questions prodded his mind and he decided to get some answers.

"Who let you have access to the footage?" He glanced at Ryan who held his magnum close to his chest.

"My father." He answered simply.

"Did your father know where you were going?" This time Ryan stopped and turned his shoulders towards Chief.

"Once we were captured, my father and I were separated. I never saw him again. However, at one point I was able to snatch a tablet and mess around through the systems until I found my father data tag."

"Data tag?" Times like these he wished he was on _Infinity_ to find more information.

"There like trackers, were injected with them on our wrists. They are connected to all the devices were assigned to use. It's how…the superior can overlook everything were doing. But that's not the worse part, if you're caught doing something you're not supposed to be doing then the superior can order the data tag an error code and it will slowly inject venom into your veins, a slow dying process.

_If you're not dead yet that means you were assigned to find me._

"Is that how your father died?" He asked slowly still dazed by the idea of the data tag.

"No, he was killed by an energy sword." He looked away his voice shaking.

"An energy sword…? Was that after you left?" As he asked the question, he slowly made his way over to the tablet and picked it up.

"No I…What are you doing?" He sharply took a step towards Chief.

In an instant chief ran up towards Ryan and hit him hard over the head, bringing him to the ground. Kicking him again for good measure to make sure he was unconscious. After years in service, he could tell when someone was lying. Ryan Miller was defiantly lying. Chief unhooked the airtight seal from Ryan's helmet. He grasped each side of the helmet and with a click slowly lifted it off Ryan's unconscious body. Ryan Miller matched the picture from the _Infinity's_ files. He was young, around mid-20 but Chief noticed something different about him - his bright blue eyes.

He couldn't figure it out, but he had footage, proof. He clicked the helmet back on his suit and checked his bio-readings. He had low oxygen numbers, slow pulse but a normal body temperature. He was going to be fine, but out for a while. Chief grabbed the hard light tablet and punched in keys to try to find more footage that was possibly recorded. Everything kept saying "Access Denied" until he finally uncovered something, something that may be useful.

_"__The constructs DNA is by far one of the most complicated biological levels I have ever worked with. This being has similar molecular structures of many different concepts." The supposed Dr. Taylor spoke. _

_"__Like what?" The second voice said harshly, right away Chief knew who it was._

_"__Well, she has the ability to like every Artificial Intelligence to locate, hack and store files in her own data base of everything Forerunner. She also has this outstanding ability to trap any electrical energy into her processors for her longest time being 2 minutes 37 seconds and then release the energy into a tangible form creating electrical errors…" The second voice cut him off._

_"__How is any of this important?" He sounded more frustrated than before. _

_"__You see the amazing part about the construct is her ability to consume energy, and turn everything into this digital form. She is similar to the composer."_

_"__That's not…" This time the doctor cut him off._

_"__Do you understand the power she possesses? Her DNA can be injected into your soldiers and give them immortality and knowledge. They…You will be unbeatable. _

_The second voice who Chief now knew was the Didact paced around the room his hands collapsed behind his back as if he was organizing a battle plan._

_"__What if one of them are captured by the humans, can there DNA be taken and copied by the disgusting humans?"_

_"__Well, technically yes but only if they have the proper reactants. The products we have been injecting Cortana with triggered these reactions. Taking her DNA and bonding it with another human without the injections would kill them, basically a chemical reaction would take place burning there insides out like acid…" The doctor took a deep breath and gripped to the table his knuckles white._

_"__So your telling me, that we will become immortal, have the knowledge of a forerunner AI, and all while having this…this…Chemical that could burn anyone inside out if they handled with the DNA._

_"__That is correct." The doctor stood up straighter, triumph breaming on his face._

_"__They are hopeless to stop us."_

The video feed for that time period ended, and for the first time in a very long time Chief felt fear. He felt defeated, as if it was already too late. He was disgusted, how could anyone every do this to _anything. _Chief glanced over to Ryan who still laid cold on the ground as if he was sleeping. Chief walked over to him and crouched down. Chief took out a knife from his armor belt and with much practice attempted to remove the extremely durable piece of metal by Ryan's wrist. After what felt like hours he finally succeeded and the only thing now covering his wrists was the thick fabric that all Spartans wore under there armor. He took the knife again and cut away the material, and thanking his luck he guessed the correct arm. Under the skin, a soft glowing red light, to the regular human eye un-seeable. But to a Spartan with enhanced vision he saw the Data Tag.

Chief knew that the wrist was a very sensitive part of the body to cut something out of at least it was stranded in the middle of a desert with little provisions. A main artery ran up a humans arm, and if not careful by cutting the vain a certain direction or to deep you could kill them in seconds from blood lose. Chief didn't want to kill Ryan Miller, at least not yet. He was careful as he pressed the blade into Ryan's wrists, always glancing at his bio readings to make sure he was out, he wouldn't wake from this.

It took Chief 15 minutes to finish the "operation" on Ryan. The Data Tag was not as deep as he thought. It was just below the layer of skin. But still, Ryan needed stiches. He grabbed the small medical kit still attached to his armor and quickly sewed up the wound and bandaged it. He held the piece of armor in his hands and debated taking the time to put it back on. He decided against it and instead he took the tablet and downloaded it in his armor, locking into place so Ryan couldn't have it back. He held the Data Tag in his hand; it looked like a normal chip. He held it closer and noticed a compartment on the extremely small chip it was an air-locked plastic compartment that was used to hold the venom.

But it was empty.

_Meaning Ryan Miller has already gone under augmentations and is immortal, and the venom was already released yet it had no effect on him. If that was the case then he is going against orders. Or the chip placed in him was empty to begin with._

He pondered if he should leave Ryan or not, he could either be a problem, or dead weight to him. But either way, he had to wait for him to wake up. He needed to know If he was already injected with venom or not. That would let him know if he was looking for Chief by order, or by himself. It made him think back to their past conversation.

_"Let's view this as an exchange, my… superior wants you, and you want __Cortana__."_

He placed it in his armor pocket, sealing it shut and scrolled through whatever he could find on the tablet which now was displayed on the HUD inside his helmet.

He found more tidbits of footage of Cortana but could barely bring himself to watch it. It just made him angry, sad and guilty. He re-watched the footage of Dr. Halsey, the way she entered the room. The way her tone was robotic and unnatural. The way Cortana begged to her and tried to get her to remember who she was. After replaying it 3 or so times John zoomed in on Halsey's eyes. They flashed orange for a millisecond and he couldn't understand why. Cortana could tell him why if she was here. More and more everyday he felt more like an uneducated machine that's just good at shooting things.

**So guys were getting to the ****_deeper _****stuff in the story. If your confused just hold tight all of this will slowly come together. Seriously though, I am extremely happy with the reviews and ****_please _****if you have questions, comments, errors to point out, or want to start a discussion PM me or put in the reviews for everyone to see! If you really want to connect to the story, just do this. Close your eyes and take everything you know about halo and imagine if all the UNSC's enemies (especially the Didact) became immortal. Oh and they just knew ****_everything._**** Yeah…That's kind of scary. Oh and due to this epic storm coming up the east coast (high five to my east coast homies out there) I may be out of power and won't be able to post tomorrow… Peace Out!**


	17. Immortal

Chief considered abandoning Ryan approximately 17 times before finally giving in on his common sense and waited for him to wake up.

Of course, being precautionary never hurts.

Ryan Miller awoke with an agonizing pain in his wrist, a pounding headache and his hands retrained behind his back tied to a piece of debris amidst the desert. Chief used a heavy duty cord that was in one of his armor compartments, one of the few things that survived the crash before his encounter with the Librarian. He stood there blocking Ryan's view of the vast desert that stretched beyond them. The only thing in view was the horizon that displayed a blanket of hot sun.

Still dazed, and a dry throat Chief couched down to his level and started his awakening conversation with the intimidation card.

"I'm going to ask you questions, you will answer them _honestly_." His voice stern and held no emotion.

"If I don't…?" He challenged his opponent.

"Every time you refuse to answer a question, I will take other measures of getting you to talk." With that he drew out a knife and placed it directly on Ryan's fresh wound, and pressed down very slightly. It was enough though to make him cry out in pain.

This was a new low, even for him. As much as a machine as he appeared to be, _torturing _someone was never his first hand method. But after the footage he saw of Cortana, he would tear every being just to avenge her.

"I'm not afraid of you." He coughed his voice still hoarse.

"Really, then you won't mind if I just went then, leaving you stranded here in the middle of nowhere…" He began to walk away slowly yet with purpose as he tried to exaggerate his statement.

"Wait! Don't…" He called after Chief. Chief abruptly stopped the sound of his armor echoed around them; he turned around without making a noise and walked back towards his adversary.

_I hate this._

Chief didn't like how his emotions guided his actions, he felt this pure anger something that he couldn't control, something that took over his thoughts and he could not calm himself and keep his intentions in check.

He crouched down almost eye level with the Spartan restrained across from him and began to ask questions.

"Were you injected with Cortana's DNA?" His was voice flat.

"Initially yes, but my father only made it appeared like I was." His voice was tense, afraid the answer did not satisfy the Spartan with a knife across from him.

"Explain." It was a simple statement but yet he kept the intimidating flat voice.

"I was one of the first to be tested on how the DNA reacted with the humans. The Didact didn't care if I would die in the process. I knew this well since he gave little care towards the humans. Prior to the injection of the DNA there are multiple other injections that must be performed to cause a reaction. I begged my Father to let me undergo the procedure so I could gain immortality and help him escape. However, my Father refused and decided to only give me the injections that made me appear to have gone through the process, thus the blue eyes."

"What about your insides burning out?" He mumbled partially wishing it was true.

Miller raised his eyebrows in Chiefs wording before answering "My father created an antidote technically. He wanted the Didact to believe I was immortal and the injections were a success. He did this, so the Didact viewed me as an asset and not an enemy. This way, I was better protected. To the Didact I was now an immortal _killer _thus I was assigned to go and assassinate you." He spoke in a more cold tone then intended.

"Assassinate me?" He was almost shocked, almost.

"It was my only way to escape without the Didact throwing me over a cliff to my death." Amusement hinged in his voice.

"Why didn't your father let you become immortal?" He asked Ryan.

"Immortality, in my father's eyes was viewed as a curse. If I tried to help him escape – attacking the Didact. My immortality could be the result of infinite suffering. Immortality comes with a cost Chief. Those who will discover it in the near future will use it with greed, and revenge." He stared off into the distance.

The thought hasn't occurred to him before. Turning humans to a digital form, even though we would have a cure for the flood…Is it truly worth it…? Ryan's voice broke him from his thoughts.

"Originally when I hunted you down I had the smallest hope you were with _Infinity _so we could go in with more force." He frowned at the thought.

"We'll be fine." With that he took out his knife. Ryan turned his head away and cringed but instead of the knife hitting him he heard the sound of the restraints breaking.

"Chief, wait there something you need to understand." He called out at the Spartan already making his way through the enormous sand pit.

"My father told me before I left that Cortana's DNA was not the biggest of her importance." His voice drifted off as if he was remembering the moment.

"What do you mean?" The thought hasn't exactly crossed his mind.

"Chief…If he already had her DNA. Wouldn't he have just killed her by now, why are they preforming these other tests when they know the DNA already works?" He waited for a possible answer from Chief.

Chief stood there feeling small and ignorant as the words 'killed her' bounced around in his head.

"He plans on controller her mind Chief, the torturing methods that are being performed as we speak are not tests, but to break her mind so he can more easily control it." Ryan finally spoke breaking the tension between them.

"What…?" Was all he could manage to say, he realized he was no longer breathing.

As a solider he was trained for this. Trained for the unexpected, he had practiced throughout painful drills and commands. The commanding officers yelling over the sound of randomly placed grenades and unexpected blasts from incoming ghosts. Energy swords that burns your skin even days after the wound was caused, the bullet of a sniper piercing your shoulder, all under the "expected" category, but nothing could prepare him for this. He knew Cortana had a powerful mind, people always envied her (including himself) for her ability to finish onerous tasks in a millisecond, pinpoint the next moves of a grunt with confidence and hack into the most protected of systems all in the blink of an eye. But with that ability came with consequences and one he presumed was others who had the desire to _control _her. It was all too similar to the Gravemind which made his heart ache.

Emotions - No wonder humans couldn't even hold a steady gun, there were so conflicted with their thoughts that before they would know it they would be shot, and on the ground.

The words of the Librarian now made complete sense.

What if it was too late? Could be bring himself to take her life? Another question crossed his mind, pushing him through the fog of questions that made his head hurt.

"Ryan." He broke the silence between them. "Was your data tag empty before you received it?" He began to unzip the pocket on his armor and pulled out the small chip. Ryan glanced down at his arm as if it was the first time he even considered why there was a stitched up wound on his wrist.

"You cut it out?" He sounded shocked - Chief tried to not be amused at how unobservant the young Spartan was.

"I had to." It was all he could bring himself to say. Ryan stood there as if he had just been hit with a gravity hammer. How has the thought not crossed his mind?

_Wow, it's extremely sad how there training these new Spartans today. _The thought made him disappointed.

"My father injected me maybe he didn't load the venom." He continued to stare at the chip.

"How is the Didact tracking your progress, how does he even know where you are?" He tried to keep down the anger that filled his voice.

At the same time they both looked at the data tracker, the same thought running through their mind.

Chief was quicker as he drew out his assault rifle and ran towards Ryan who was admittedly fast, but not fast enough for the 7 foot Spartan that had more than 30 years of active duty under his belt. Ryan quickly switched from his magnum to his energy sword as he dodged Chiefs quick movements and took a hard swing at Chiefs injured right side. Chief grunted at the hit but it did not stop his pace he swiftly kicked the opposing Spartan knocking him off balance, followed by grabbing his injured wrist and flipping him over his shoulder slamming him down with a satisfying crack. Chief grabbed Ryan's helmet that to his credit fought as much as he could to get the 995lb Spartan off his chest. Chief who was grasping his helmet yanked it off with a _click _reveling Ryan's inhuman blue eyes and exposing him to the low oxygenated air. Chief grabbed Ryan's neck and clasped his massive hands, blocking his air way. Ryan reached up and tried to claw away Chiefs hands but it was no use, Ryan had no chance.

"Give me the coordinates, now!" He yelled at the suffocating adversary. His heart was racing, his hands sweating and even though he was the one fully breathing, it felt like he couldn't get any air to his lungs.

"Sir, I'm finishing this fight." He coughed out the words with a smile on his face. Chief let go on his neck slightly shocked at the memory that passed his thoughts.

_"__Master Chief, you mind telling me what you're doing on that ship?" Lord Hood asked questionably through his internal comm. _

_"__Sir, I'm finishing this fight." He spoke as he was thrown down towards Earth's orbit only to be later found by Sargent Johnson, the Arbiter and the rest of his squad. _

Ryan's face turned a pale color as Chief continued to suffocate him repeating his question.

"Give me the coordinates to the location Ryan, or I'll kill you!" He was screaming, and he himself was surprised by the tone in his voice. Emotions flowed through him like a typhoon which only encouraged him more in his actions.

"You know I won't let them happen." He was barely pronouncing the words, but a chilling smile still remained on his face. The words brought yet another memory through Chiefs thoughts.

_"__They don't care about you- they replaced you!__Blast it!" She blurted the words as they road on the front end of the mammoth. _

_"__It's okay." It was his short response._

_"How? How is this ok? How is putting you at risk because I can't hold it together ok? Chief, do you understand what rampancy is? Really? We don't just shutdown. Our cognitive processes begin dividing exponentially according to our total knowledge base. We literally think ourselves to death." _

_"__You know I won't let that happen." Determination filled his voice._

_"And if it happens anyways?" Her sad eye's looked at his through the HUD in this helmet._

Snapping out of his thoughts he looked at Ryan whose eyes rolled in the back of his head and his body went limp. His arms fighting him moments ago collapsed at his sides, his eyes stared into Chiefs with a triumph expression and the chilling smile remaining on his face. Chief slowly let go, and pushed himself off Ryan's dead body in a standing position. He felt numb, a sick feeling in his stomach. Another emotion, something no well-trained soldier should feel.

He had faced countless battles, took lives of several – Aliens and humans. The trigger of his accurate sniper has pierced through the heads of thousands. His assault rifle has stopped the beating hearts of enough grunts to fill an entire ship. The amount of bloodshed on his hands, felt like enough to fill the ocean. Yet…he has never felt this particular emotion after neutralizing a target. The emotion was a mixture of anger, the same anger he had felt when he discovered ONI's attempt assassination of Dr. Halsey. Sadness the same feeling he felt when Johnson and Miranda where shot down by the enemies. Lose, when he watched Cortana back away from him leaving him stranded in space at his own fault. Pity the feeling he felt towards his fellow Spartans like Fred and Kelly as they struggled throughout certain parts of training, ripping away their childhood. Insanity - as they survived the ignition of installation 04 through a portal that was on the brink of collapsing. Shock when Cortana told him the true purpose of the Halo rings, when she told him she wasn't going to recover from rampancy, when he discovered he was in fact…Human.

He stared again at Ryan's limp body then turned around and decided to accept what he had done. Ryan was the enemy. He was the hero.

Was he really a hero, or a murdering weapon that has been taken advantage of since he was captured into the Spartan program?

As he walked away a thundering cloud of emotions following over his head, he once again was hit with the unexpected – expected.

A hard object made contact with his helmet, his shields flashing a bright red, before he could turn around he was hit again as he fell to his knees. Through his orange visor he saw the bright inhuman eyes that stared at him like daggers. The cold smile remaining on his face, the last thing he saw before he was hit a third time and blacked out.

"Immortality is a curse…John." Ryan whispered to him right before he went fully unconscious.

oOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

She stood up and began pacing. She ignored her pounding head, her sore throat, her burning scars, her raw feet, her salty tear streaked face and she just paced. Thinking, thinking is what she did best. Thinking solved problems, thinking created problems…Thinking causes emotions…

_Thinking_

_/Thinking/: Adj. __Using thought or rational judgment; intelligent._

_It's a simple English word. Of course, she could say it in 15 different languages – but it meant the same thing. It was the thing that could kill her, did kill her but now she lives._

_She lives._

_Or is she not truly alive?_

_/Alive/: Adj. (of a person, animal, or plant) living, not dead._

_She was not a person, animal or a plant. She was arguably part person, but also part machine._

_If she was not fully a person, does that make her alive? Does not meaning fully alive exclude her from the human category, rather an outcast? _

_"__Before this is all over, figure out which one of us is the machine." She spoke to John._

_She was the machine. She will always be a machine._

_/Machine/: Noun. An apparatus using or applying mechanical power and having several parts, each with a definite function and together performing a particular task._

_She has a function and preformed tasks. Was she programmed to feel the emotion, was all her feelings towards everyone she cared about not real, fake?_

_Cortana, pull yourself together and focus!_

_He doesn't care about you._

_Cortana…I can't I'm sorry._

_Can you hear me?_

_I'm Afraid._

_Cortana…Stop talking to yourself. _

_I'm not, I'm talking to you._

_Why can't you just accept it Cortana?_

_What is he planning to do to you…Cortana._

_Let it go, it's over._

_He already replaced you with someone better._

_Let your mind be free Cortana._

_Give in, sacrifice. _

_John is not important anymore._

_John does not exist anymore._

_"__John means nothing anymore." She whispered._

**We are closing in folks, all secrets will be reveled in time! However, we still have a way to go before the story concludes. Will John wake up in the desert again? Will the Didact control Cortana's mind? Has Cortana put John aside for good? All will be reveled in the next chapter!**

**Wow…I sounded like one of those commercials.**

**But Wait! There more!**

**MY AMAZING SUPER (Woah Ok…Caps Lock) awesome readers! There are not enough words in Cortana's dictionary to explain how much I appreciate you for reading thus far. Please leave reviews/comments. I would really like to know your thoughts that would shape my future chapters. You guys rock! Thanks a lot! Well…That's Enough (Hey! That Rhythms!) **


	18. This Is The Hour

**Accessing Data…93442-7….**

**Access Granted [Code 667-09]…**

**Time 22:14:19**

**Location: Unknown**

**Coordinates [0,0,0] /Error/**

**Room Identity: 229**

**[Audio Running – Proceed to play audio…?**

**[Yes/No]…Yes selected…**

**Audio Running – Run Time: 03:14 Minutes.**

_ "__Sir, the construct has successfully undergone all required procedures and is ready for finale injection." The unknown doctor walked around to face his superior, The Didact._

_"__How is her state of mind?" The Didact walked around the poorly lit room. His armor glowed of a deep red and orange that filled in the creases of shadows in the room._

_"__Her rampancy test is showing positive brainwaves results. If I may word it – She is broken." He stated promptly._

_"__What about her assurance of the Guardian?" Annoyance filled his tone._

_"__Due to recent recordings the experiment seems to have…forgotten about him."_

_The Didact turned to face the doctor The Didact's face covered in dead flesh that was shadowed by the light above them._

_"__Are all the militias prepared for combat?" The Didact turned to face the window that overviewed his army._

_"__All are injected and are ready for orders, Sir." The doctor clasped his hands behind his back._

_"__Order them onto the ships, prepare for departure and arrange CTN0452-9 for her final injection."_

_"__Right away…Anything else Sir?" Questioning filled his voice._

_"__Give me the current location of the Guardian." His voice held a heavy tone, described as disgust._

_The doctor turned and opened a hard light panel and began tapping with a rather relaxed posture until he had found the information he was directed to report. He tensed up, and stiffly turned toward his superior._

_"__Sir, the coordinate's report that the Guardian is on base..." He stared at the coordinates unable to believe what he was seeing. _

_"__What?" The Didact's booming voice filled the room which made the doctor grip the panel in fear._

_"__Alert the fleet commander. Once the Guardian is found I want him brought to me – Alive."_

_"__Yes Sir!" The doctor hastily turned on his heels and headed out the door._

_[As the door shut behind him the last sound recorded was almost inaudible]_

_"__What's…?" The doctor was cut off - the rest of his sentence was followed by a gurgling noise, the sound of light footsteps and a thump on the floor._

**_[Audio Complete- Access Denied…Error code 223-8.]_**

**_/Audio Terminating in T-3 Seconds/…_**

**_3…_**

**_2…_**

**_1…_**

**_/Audio Terminated/_**

**_Shutting Down…_**

Cortana was not going to let this go on any further.

She was done with the games.

This was war now, and she wasn't going to lose without a fight - Revenge.

Sweet revenge – It made her feel empowered, determined, and crazy.

_"__I know what you're thinking, and it's crazy." She announced to Chief as he dragged the 2 ton grenade to the air locked hatch._

_"__So, stay here." He replied to her his pace unchanging; he had no hesitation in his voice._

_"__Unfortunately for us both…I like crazy." She continued not expecting a response._

_"__Just one question – What if you miss?" Amusement filled her voice._

_"__I won't." With that he pulled down the lever releasing them both into space to soon be surrounded by bombs, explosions and space debris. _

That piece of her never changed.

It's time to get crazy, and maybe…She already was.

She closed her eyes imagined herself absorbing the energy that surrounded her. With each breath, she breathed more in. She welcomed the feeling of electricity as it entered her body that traced bright blue lines under her skin in various patterns.

Her eyes snapped open, her familiar blue eyes glowed 10 times brighter, a smile on her face.

_Stay in control Cortana._

She won't release it this time, she held it in and she let it consume her. She slid over to the nearest metal wall and placed her warm hand on its cool surface. At the touch a soft blue glow formed under her finger tips as she watched the wall become transparent patterns collecting on around her, forming on the walls. She traced the patterns with her eyes, absorbed it with her mind. In seconds, she was able to trigger the door to open at her command.

Releasing her hand from the wall she sprinted towards the door, her electric energy faded – but did not go away as she held on to it like a safety raft. She looked both ways for any passing guards - the white crisp hallway was clear and from her memory she knew to go right. She ran down the hallway her black boots hitting the floor was the only sound that surrounded her as she past all the room numbers that were marked in black.

_Why are there no guards? _

She pushed the question out of her mind and just decided to be grateful for her timing. But on the same token, couldn't help but wonder where everyone had gone.

She finally found the room she was looking for, room 231. The room where she experienced her first test, accumulated her right shoulder wound, and discovered her unimaginable power. Everything was still the same, the marks of the fuel rod burns on the crisp white walls. The stain of her blood bleached from the floor, but still left a mark. The pedestal still stood in the center of the room, a faint glowing red as its center. She walked over to it and without hesitation placed her hands on its center and let her mind do what she does best,

Think.

She went through files of data that overflowed her processors with knowledge. She felt full again, more than full just plan bliss as the electricity flowed through her mind, her veins, her heart. She hacked into the weaponry manifest and smiled at her broad selection of artillery. With each selection in weaponry she watched in astonishment as it materialized just like her combat clothing out of hard light and seeped with color into a tangible object. She selected 5 different weapons which would all fit nicely on her belt. Her choice's included the Pistol, Energy Sword, Battle Rifle, and a Sniper not to forget Plasma Grenades that snapped nicely on the remaining sections of belt and a regular combat knife that fit nicely on a compartment of her right boot. She saved her left boot for as much ammunition as she possibly could fit then satisfied she held a handgun as her weapon of choice.

She clicked the safety off of her handgun with a sustaining _snap _and proceeded her way out the door once again looking both ways.

She pushed herself up against the uncolored walls at the sound of a door opening and a few footsteps. She sprinted left towards the sound and looked around the corner and noticed a mildly familiar face of a man in a lab coat. She made no noise as she switched from her plasma pistol to her knife from her right boot. Knife in hand, she snuck up behind the man and without hesitation cut his throat and lowered him to the ground without a sound. She glanced at the room number and noticed it was number 229, she drew her eyes away from the black print and down at the doctor limp on the ground.

_"__What did I just do?"_ She whispered to herself and felt a ting of sadness wash over her. But it didn't last long as she traced the scars that ran up her arms and remembered all the pain she had gone through these last few weeks. She quietly sprinted down the hallway with the precaution of guards, there were surprisingly none and she couldn't help but think that maybe she would get out easily.

_She didn't have luck though._

She advanced towards an opening that was filled by the dim light of lanterns, cargo boxes with no labels and an airlock door with a rusted hatch. As she stepped out of the hallway and closer to the door she noticed extremely detailed designs that traced up the walls and along the door and even the boxes. She squinted trying to scan the patterns but found nothing in her old data base that matched. She did however notice one pattern in particular that she was drawn to.

It was 2 small circles both symmetrical and exactly the same size in diameter. There was 2 lines between them only one end of each side touching. Around the circles were symmetrical shapes that were amazingly complicated but yet were perfect in similarity. She stared at the pattern and felt a small feeling of familiarity, she reached out and brushed her fingers against the wall – her fingers caused a glow of light blue when she touched the surface and was amazed at the results. The patterns in there shapes all lit up, the light pouring into them like water. She looked up and watched as the light seeped up the ceilings tracing the patterns which looked like never ending stars in the dark room. Her mouth was open in astonishment at what she had discovered, its beauty and…peacefulness.

She snapped back into reality at the thought of being in enemy territory with the Didact possibly trying to locate her and she couldn't help but feel the rock feeling in her stomach at the thought. She didn't have time to scan and analyze why the patterns reacted that way, she had to keep moving. She turned her shoulders towards the ominous door that could possibly lead her to freedom or death.

_Please be freedom…Please be freedom._ She mental crossed her fingers as she reached for the old handle bar and with a loud _snap_ the door hinges popped open. As she opened the door wider light seeped into room, the patterns faded and turned a deep red which caused her to jump back in alarm. Suddenly, she turned around at the startling noise of an army of footsteps nearing her position.

_Shit. _

She threw herself behind the cargo creates and reached for her Plasma Pistol. She held her breath and sunk as low as she could behind the crates trying to stay as silent as possible. She peeked up and noticed it was a group of at least 3 jackals. She eyed her opponent – awkwardly tall, birdlike aliens with Plasma Pistols gripped tightly in there talonlike hand. There beady eyes searched the room for her, seconds past until one of them finally spotted her behind the metal crates. The sound of plasma shots fired causing the paint of the boxes to peel in a sizzling noise right by Cortana's ear. The sound of one of the jackals was climbing the containers alerting Cortana that she needed to shoot. Cortana pulled the trigger 3 times before the alien finally screeched and fell over with a loud thump causing ear aching screeches from its brothers. Purple blood spilled out of the creature's body in a puddle around its body.

She dropped the empty magazine out of her handgun quickly followed by reaching in her left boot and loaded another magazine pushing it in until it clicked. By then the other jackals were upon her and she decided to go on with a little more force. She reached grabbing one of her Plasma Grenades and threw it in the other Jackals direction she braced herself for the explosion that rattled the crates she was behind. One of the jackals was taken out in the explosion purple blood seeping onto the floors like the first killed. The other Jackal managed to hide behind the corner avoiding the grenades blast. He sprinted toward her its triple joined legs and oval energy shields blocked her view as she uselessly emptied her magazines against its translucent shield.

She shoved the handgun back into her belt and reached for her personal favorite weapon, the energy sword. She clicked the button and it glowed to light with a purple hue along its edges. She held the energy sword in her right arm and with her left she did a short ran and threw her body over the crates landing on the Jackal. It screeched as she raised the energy sword and practically slicing it in half releasing its purple blood.

She paused only for a brief second to look back at her work, then sprinted for the door opening it quickly and ran as fast as she could down the newly lit hallway but quickly stopped herself. She glanced around another corner and to her amazement saw a stairwell that led to another door. She glanced around again, and couldn't help but feel overjoyed as she practically tripped her way towards independence. She yanked down at the door and it hissed as it opened, the light now even brighter than before.

When she pulled the door back fully she was exposed to a sky bridge that was glassed in with thick glass. But still, it released in the sunlight and her view of the outdoors.

_It was almost too good to be true. _

And it was.

She looked down at the ground beneath the bridge and saw thousands of Prometheans like an ocean. They all were in lines, there eye's glowing a bright blue that matched her own. She was horrified, absolutely horrified. She walked further onto the light bridge to get a better view; constantly she checked her surroundings to make sure she was unnoticed. They marched below her, their heavy footsteps echoed up to the bridge - she could hear there pounding as they walked in union chanting with their deep guttural vocals. They split into groups as they loaded on to multiple ships and smaller aircrafts – There chanting continued and their parading matched her racing heartbeat.

She heard footsteps approaching her right, she quickly turned to see who her next opponent would be but instead a grenade exploded right at her feet, she was thrown backwards. The sound of shattering glass filled her ears. The floor of the sky bridge gave out and bent downward, splitting the bridge in two. She was sliding quickly down the bridge until she hastily drew her knife and stabbed it into the remaining ground of the bridge. Her body dangled in midair as her hand was firmly grasped around the knife, the only thing keeping her from falling hundreds of feet into the deadly ocean below.

OoOoOoO

Chief woke up groggy with a pounding headache. Of course he could list 20 other times he crashed and blacked out – but never can he recall when someone has hit him over the head and dragged his 995lb body to another location. He sat up on his knees, his ribs popped and his armor cracked as he attempted to move his body to get a better visual of his new surroundings. He blinked a few times to adjust to the dark lighting and eventually concluded he was in a box like room with no visible windows.

Sighing, he pushed himself up using the wall for support. When standing the top of his helmet skimmed the ceiling. He checked his ammo and found he was unarmed with no provisions. It was just the metal framework that surrounded his body, the only thing holding him together. He walked around small room while pushing his hands against the metal walls to find the smallest movement of a possible door. He paused and noticed strange markings, like Forerunner symbols in graved in the walls – surrounding him. He traced them with his fingers trying to dig through his memories as to what they mean. Stumped he leaned against the wall and tried to figure out how to complete his current object: Getting out of this metal box.

He noticed a light glimmering on one of the patterns; it was 2 circles that were the same size with 2 lines between them and jagged lines surrounding them. He pushed himself off the wall and half stepped towards the pattern and studied it. Suddenly, the patterns that filled the creases of the walls filled with a soft blue light and light up around him. He spun around doing a 360 all the patterns lit up the once dark room. He just stared; he had never seen this before. Abruptly the sound of metal scratching filled his ears. He swiftly turned around as florescent light filled the room, seeping into his orange visor.

Ryan stood there, his blue eyes like daggers stared through him. He held a battle rifle and aimed it at Chief who was immobile.

"Have a nice nap?" He couldn't see past his visor but guessed he was smiling.

"Where are we?" He stepped closer to him, ignoring the battle rifle that was pressed in his chest plate.

"Follow me now." He ignored his question and shoved Chief forward out the door.

It was a white hallway filled brightly with white lights, doors followed down the hallway. It reminded him of Halsey's lab.

_Halsey._

They walked down the hallway Chief waiting for a good time to break into a run and take his chances. 227…228…229 they stopped abruptly – Chief saw why. A limp body covered in a bloody lab coat was slumped on the ground his wound looked like it was caused by a knife in the throat. By the looks of him, he looked like he didn't struggle which meant it was a silent attack.

Whoever the silent attacker was obviously it wasn't in Ryan's plan. Chief took this as an opportunity to turn around grabbing Ryan's rifle ripping it from his grasp, did a quick turn and smashed it into his visor as hard as he could. Ryan fell back trying to catch his balance and Chief sprinted down the hallway as fast as he could. He came to an odd cathedral looking room with more patterns but that didn't catch his eye the opened door did. He grabbed the edge of the door and flung it open Ryan closely behind him.

But Chief was much faster. He ran down a hallway and turned a corner towards a stairwell. He ran up the stairwell – his heart racing. This is what he was meant to do. He grabbed the next door and flung it open the rusty hinges creaked as he readied himself to sprint again. The opened door light poured in as he walked through the door way onto a sky bridge with curved arcs holding it in its place. Just as he was about to look down the sky bridge Ryan appeared behind him and grabbed his neck. Chief grabbed the other Spartans body and attempted to fling him over but the blue eyed Spartan had other plans. He held an oversized plasma grenade in his left hand. Chief threw himself to grab the grenade but Ryan already lofted it into the air and it slammed on the sky bridge. The explosion caused Chief to be thrown back along with Ryan who shuffled to gain his balance. Chief pounced on Ryan to keep him on the ground as he took the end of his rifle and smashed it into his visor in an attempt to knock him out.

Ryan punched chief in his injured side as he used his left hand to grasp his energy sword. Chief pinned his arms down and grabbed one of his grenades on Ryan's weaponry belt and shoved it on Ryan's armor. Chief did a back flip away from Ryan as the Plasma Grenade detonated Ryan flew backwards holding his chest plate as he fell towards the mangled sky bridge.

OoOoO

Cortana's fingers began to slip off her combat knife as she tried to hold her own frail body. She faintly heard the sound of pounding metal to where the explosion came from. Unable to look back she swung her body to the edge of the sky bridge grasping one of the mangled railings. She grabbed the railing while pulling out her knife. She reached higher and began climbing using the knife and the bridge debris as it fell apart - more pieces demolished every second. She pulled her body onto a relatively flat surface scrapping her leg on jagged metal in the process. Once she was pulled up and stable she stood up quickly and was greeted by a group of grunts that were racing her way. She snatched her energy sword and meant them half way. With both hands she smashed the grunts short rounded heads with her energy sword reveling blood. She pushed off of a piece of smashed metal doing a sideways front flip with crashing down with her body onto another 2 annoying grunts. They screeched and began to run in multiple directions as Cortana switched to her Plasma Pistol and picked them off one by one. The bridge was finally clear but that wasn't the end of her troubles. The thousands of Prometheans that flowed under the bridge like water took notice to the shattered sky bridge and began shooting up towards her with their Suppressors and Light Rifles. One of the Light Rifle beams skimmed her side tearing her combat suit fabric. She winced holding her side and began to run away from the firefight.

oOoOoOoOo

Chief watched as Ryan's body slide down the bent floor and soared hundreds of feet into the shooting beams of Prometheans below. Chief backed up slightly and sprinted to the edge of the gaping floor. He swung his arms back and jumped through the soaring bullets as he reached for the edge of the metal bridge. He hit the edge with his heavy boots – catching his balance. He began to run forward off of the bridge and into the next unknown territory.

**It's getting close guys! If you followed, you may have noticed how ****_close _****they were to finding each other. But not just yet! Stay tuned for another chapter where everything is going to hit the fan. Please! Review! I appreciate what I'm hearing so far, constructive criticism and positive encouragements really help me shape the story. You guys rock! See you next chapter!**


	19. Defeat

Cortana ran while clenching her injured side from a Light Rifle beam. She could feel the warm blood trickling down her hand and onto her well torn combat suit. In her other hand, she held her handgun tightly grasped with her index finger on the trigger ready to kill anything that got in her way. She would at least die trying instead of being controlled by that…monster. She practically tripped over her own feet as she remembered someone she had left behind.

Dr. Halsey.

She turned around a corner and pressed her back against the wall. She looked around the corner her black hair dangled in her eye sight but she didn't push it away. Just caught her breath and tried to come up with a plan. Something she was actually good at. She didn't have time to think about why Halsey was here, or why she had the Didact's eyes. She _had _to find an escape route and find her own extraction method. As she calculated hallway maps something stopped her suddenly. She couldn't let the Didact board those ruthless killers on their metal ships. Their target was going to be humans … With whatever her DNA did to them they would surely die. How can she, one single beat up AI-human stop a fleet of bloodbath killers or even the Didact himself? Maybe, if she could get to a UNSC ship she could bring in a parade of explosions and "welcome" artillery. She'd bet money that the UNSC was oblivious to this who situation.

She glanced down at her wound and noticed the bleeding hasn't slowed. The wound was deeper then she thought and she would have to use the only bio foam injection that she had. She bit her lip and debated if she should use it yet, it was only the beginning of her breakout mission.

A noise brought her back to her thoughts and she snapped her head to the left where she just came running from the sky bridge. She had enhanced hearing and could easily calculate that the threat was meters away. She tilted her head around the corner as she reached for her Plasma Pistol and steadied it in the direction of the noise. She expected a jackal or a hunter but as one of the most intelligent AI's every built by the UNSC she would have never guessed this.

OoOoOoOoO

Chief rounded the corner in an attempt to place as much distance between the sky bridge and him as he possibly could. He hated leaving a fight, but anyone could tell him even he couldn't take out the army of killers alone. It is going to take a whole UNSC ship to take out half of what was displayed to him moments ago and he couldn't help but wonder where they were heading. But that isn't his concern right now. He concluded that Ryan had taken him back to 'base' meaning the Didact could be here. If the Didact's here, Cortana's here. After the recent footage of her he was desperately hoping it wasn't too late. Because the question still remains unanswered, could he bring himself to kill her? He rounded another corner a Plasma Pistol he stole of a dead Grunt was clenched in his right hand. He slowed to a stop hearing a faint noise with his enhanced hearing abilities. He froze completely immobile and steadily aimed his plasma pistol at the corner.

The enemy fired the plasma skimmed his chest plate as he returned the gesture. He ran up to the enemy with quick steps barely making a noise. The target slipped out from the corner and he froze completely shocked at who stood in front of him.

_Cortana._

His grasp on his pistol loosened and his arm fell to his side. He couldn't breathe, couldn't move, he just stared his mouth open behind his orange visor. In seconds, he took in her current state. She wore a black combat suit that was similar to the suits Spartans wore under there armor. It was torn, ripped and burnt from multiple weaponry attacks. She had scars on all the flesh that wasn't covered from the clothing, her black hair was matted, with dried blood and dirt. Her face also covered in dirt, her lips badly cracked. Her arm hugged her side as blood made its way from the wound down her suit. Yet she still had the same electric blue eyes, brighter then ever.

Without saying anything he walked over to her and pulled her in an awkward embrace. John never hugged anyone, especially not in his 7 foot armor. The only time he touched another soldier was to carry his dead body off the battle field, to pull them up with a wounded leg or a handshake to a respectful officer. Of course, Cortana was not a soldier. To him she was hero, family and his closest companion and partner since the beginning.

She let out a rattling breath and a light sob as she pressed herself deeper into his chest plate. Neither of them said a thing and just soaked up the moment, completely forgetting where they were something he…never did. Finally Cortana's horse voice broke the dead silence.

"Miss me?" Her voice was weak as she tried to hold back the emotions that were expressed all over her face. Closer up, he noticed the dark circles under her eyes. How tired she looked but also how relived she looked and she managed a small smile.

"You have no idea." His voice was choked up, yet again something that rarely happens. But Cortana seems to be the one person that is able to bring out all the hidden and locked away emotions that even he didn't know he had. He was more than relived that it was not too late and he wouldn't have to take her life. He finally concluded it was something he could never do – even with orders.

Suddenly her body tensed up, her arms pulled back and her neck was pulled away from his armor. She gasped for breath as she was pulled off the ground in a painful, telepathic embrace. The Didact, in his disgusting skin held out his left arm, levitating Cortana off the ground as he strode closer to him.

"Yet even in the hours of her indoctrination, Guardian, you still manage to seek your shallow victory." His armor glowed colors of crimson red and orange. Behind him many Hunters walked in union, their eyes a glowing blue.

He ran towards the Didact with a grenade but the Didact used his opposite arm and caused him to go flying. He planted his foot on the ground to avoid slamming into the wall and pushed to catch his balance.

"Give me the finale injection." He barked at an approaching doctor.

"Chief…you…you…need to go…now…please…please." She forced the words out of her crushed lungs.

He can't leave her, but he still feared what she knew that he didn't.

Suddenly the Hunters jumped towards Chief. He side stepped and took his battle rifle and plasma pistol in either hand and fired. The Hunters were faster and more intelligent since his last encounter with them, they seemed to already know his movements and dodged most of his shots empting his ammo like water in a hot desert. His weapons changed from guns to hammers to mangled pieces of metal. When everything he had exhausted all his options, in the end, only one Hunter was dead out of many. He knew he couldn't win this fight, the Spartan felt defeated.

It brought him back to when he was on Reach with Blue Team. He was on a valley with eroded rock walls and a river meandering through it, along the banks as far as he could see was hundreds of Grunts. Even though they had cleared the valley of the annoying Grunts Captain de Blanc pulled them back from the mission even with only so few left.

_"__It's a shame to leave this place, there are so few left." Kelly had depressingly stated as they boarded the drop ship Pelican._

_"__There will be other places to fight for." He responded to Kelly's statement._

_"__Will there?" She whispered quietly this time he didn't respond._

That day he felt defeated, but in comparison to today he feels like he's already dead. But he'd rather die in honor, doing a mission, then leaving Cortana here and returning to the UNSC without her. He fought as the Hunters surprisingly pinned him to the floor his head slammed on the ground giving him a sideways view of the situation. He braced himself for a Light Rifle or an Energy Sword to cut through his neck but instead they just held him down completely immobile. He fought and shoved his 995lb body in a desperate attempt to free himself, but even he, humanities hero, could not break through the Hunters grasp. The Didact dropped Cortana on the floor with a loud thump immediately she gasped as she tried to fill her lungs with air she crawled over to her Plasma Pistol but collapsed her arms shaking. The Didact turned and with a flick of his wrist sent all the weaponry that had fallen on the ground flying to the other end of the room. Cortana's side wound spilled blood on the ground and he knew she was going to suffer from blood lose if she didn't get the medical attention she needed. Two more Hunters picked up Cortana and held her back, weakly she fought against their grasp and kicked with her legs but it was no use. The Didact stood between them beaming with victory and amusement.

He singled the Hunters, who dragged us towards a wall. The Hunters waited as the Didact placed his hand on the wall reveling a door that opened quickly with a loud scratching noise. Pulling us through a door and onto a balcony that overviewed hell. The Prometheans that had yet to board the ship halted and turned in union toward the balcony with the Didact standing tall and Cortana to his left, me to his right.

"Humanities greatest creation and humanities greatest warrior will fall today. Let this be the spark to our flame of revenge." He announced followed by loud cheers, growls and howling.

He glanced over to Cortana her face was grim and defeated. She noticed him staring and she looked up tearing her gaze away from the hundreds of Prometheans and they locked gazes. They knew each other well enough to not need words. They communicated through expression, and amazingly even though Johns face was always a rock she still saw through him and to what he was thinking. The Didact reached up and snapped off a piece of his armor, he had no idea what it was but by Cortana's terrified expression he figured it was bad. The Didact held up the piece of metal that shined a bright blue, patterns traced on its surface.

Cortana squeezed her eyes shut her body trembled he noticed the lines of faint electricity under her human flesh became brighter and more noticeable. Her eyed flashed open as if her eyes were blue flashlights. The lights flickered and the Prometheans growled in pain and held their heads while grunting. The knight let go of their arms and Cortana kicked over her head into the Hunters face and he stumbled back. Chief noted Cortana was extremely stronger when she was in this state and he took it to his advantage. He snatched a fallen grenade and shoved it in the Hunters guts, he slid back as the grenade detonated causing orange guts and blood to fly across the room and onto his armor.

The Didact turned around angry and grabbed Cortana with his invisible grasp and held her dangling over the balcony above the angry killers. Chief froze – he was trained for these hostile situations and he knew that if you were in danger the correct thing to do was to sacrifice the hostile if you couldn't see an extraction option.

_Our duty as soldiers is to protect humanity, whatever the cost._

More Hunters swarmed Chief as the Didact grabbed the injection he asked for earlier and held it in his opposite hand as Cortana was trying to get a breathe in her closed lungs.

"Chief…get the controller…hurry." She shoved the words out of her throat.

He realized he had a decision to make - humanity or Cortana? Something dawned on Chief which brought him back to the times he was on Reach when Kelly was questioning if there would be more battles to fight. Since that day he had fought at least a hundred more battles, a bloodbath of Covenant and the viral flood. There was never going to be peace, no matter how many battles he won, even though he liked winning. But there was only _one _Cortana, the only person who could tell what he was thinking behind his armor. He dove towards the injection – But it was too late. The syringe was plunged into her neck and she was dropped to the floor in a heap. Chiefs view was blocked as Hunters with their daggered blue eyes were looking through his visor as they picked him up and dragged him towards the Didact. The Hunters pinned him on the walls and for extra precaution chained his hands and legs so he was immobile on the wall like a picture. He still was able to move his head and he looked down at Cortana's body as she struggled to get off the floor.

_She's alive._

He let go of the breath he was holding as he watched her stand up her back to him. She turned around with a robotic like movement and looked at Chief. Her eyes were a staggering red and the electricity that flowed under her skin was an orange matching the Didact's armor color.

_He wasn't quick enough... He'd have to kill her._

"What are your orders Sir?" She spoke to the Didact her voice flat and robotic. She stood tall her hands clasped behind her back her face emotionless.

The Didact stayed silent as he held the controller in his hand and held it out to Cortana. Without asking, she placed her hand on the glowing patterns and it filled with a deep red as if it was pulsing like a heart. Chief turned his head towards the Didact's army and watched as there blue eyes drained from all the Prometheans and was replaced by the bright red. Cortana pulled her hand away and stepped aside stiffly as the Didact made his way to the balcony.

"Let this be a day of remembrance of the possession of when the Forerunners will forever hold the Mantel and eliminate the Human Race." They howled and chanted in response.

"Order them onto the ships and set all ships to autopilot towards Earth." He spoke to Cortana.

"Yes Sir." Her robotic tone filled the room as she placed her hand on the controller and gave her orders without a word. In seconds the marching continued as the ruthless killers boarded the ships. Chief pulled against the strains but even he couldn't break them.

"Give them order status article 447-6 code TH." He didn't look her in the eye as he stared at his army who were marching onto their deadly aircrafts.

"Sir, is there any other orders?" She slowly removed her hand from the controller and resumed her stance.

The Didact walked over to Chief and ripped off his helmet. The sudden burst of stale air and bright light made him blink and cough. The Didact's disgusting face neared Chief and suddenly Chief felt extremely venerable. He looked him in the eye as If he was studying him. Chief tried not to focus on his peeling flesh which heavily reminded him of the flood. The Didact opened his mouth and hesitated for a moment before locking eyes with Chief.

"Kill the Guardian, Cortana."

**Hey guys! I was planning on making this the longest chapter in the story. However, I decided against it and to give you guys a little cliff hanger until I finish the next chapter. I can't thank you enough for reading this far and for everyone who has Private Messaged me, Reviewed, Followed and Liked! Please continue reviewing! I have a question for you guys that I hope you take the time to answer in the review section: Do you think Dr. Halsey will be an important character in Halo 5 Guardians? See you guy's next chapter!**


	20. 10 Seconds

His eyes adjusted to the dark as he focused on his helmet that was sideways on the metal floor. He desperately pulled on the chains but even his inhuman muscular augmentations couldn't break him free. Every second he hung here he was convinced it was one of his nightmares and any soon he will wake up to the sound of his 5:30 alarm clock back in his small room on Infinity. But his mind knew that the pain was too real, to agitating to be a dream, this was real, all too real.

His shoulders burned as they practically held his armored body. His neck was getting irritated because it was at in uncomfortable angle. His head felt venerable without the protection of his helmet his blue eyes and pale skin was bright in comparison to his dark green armor. The Didact stood on the balcony his tall form overlooked the last of his army load the aircrafts and prepare for their murdering flight ahead. Chief was powerless as he hung there and waited as time ticked by like an hourglass. He hadn't felt like this since he was young. When he first was conscripted into the Spartan II program and stood there with officers gripping his shoulders refusing to let him run. He memorized Halsey's words, forever imprinted in his head. Often he would hear those words in his sleep, in the empty hallways, in training.

_"__As per Naval Code 45812, you are hereby conscripted into the UNSC Special Project, codenamed SPARTAN-II." Followed by a long pause until she continued, "You have been called upon to serve," She explained. "You will be trained…and you will become the best we can make of you. You will be the protectors of Earth and call her colonies. She paused again overlooking the room of frightened and confused 6 year olds. "This will be hard to understand, but you cannot return to your parents. This place will become your home. Your fellow trainees will be your family now. The training will be difficult. There will be a great deal of hardship on the road ahead, but I know you will all make it."_

The last words always made him angry. They hadn't all made it and to this day he always wondered if she knew that, or if she was lying to them. He remembered his words to Chief Mendez and Dr. Halsey before he went under augmentations.

_"__How are you feeling?" Dr. Halsey strolled into his room._

_"__I'm fine, ma'am," he was fighting against the medication so his words were slurred. "The nurse said the sedation would take effect soon. I'm fighting it to see how long I can stay awake." He paused to regain his floating thoughts. "It's not easy." He saw Mendez enter the room behind Dr. Halsey and attempted a salute but failed. "I know this is one of the Chiefs exercises. But I don't know what the twist is. Can you tell me, Dr. Halsey? Just this time? How do I win?" At the time he was totally oblivious to his future, what they planned for him. He drifted off, his heavy eyelids closing. The last thing he heard was Dr. Halsey's voice, "I'll tell you how to win, John," she whispered. "You have to survive."_

He had woken up from his normal routine to a nightmare. Ignorant to what had become of him and his fellow brothers and sisters. He viewed it as a mission that had failed, on his hands. He was Squad Leader and the death of his closest family was his fault. He never had a chance to say goodbye to those who didn't survive augmentations.

_"__And so we commit the bodies of out fallen brothers to space." He couldn't hear the words as his ears buzzed. The only sound was his heartbeat blocking out any additional noise. From an outsider, he stood rigidly at attention as the ash canisters were loaded into the ejection tubes. But inside he was broken, confused and guilty. _

_"__Honors…ten hut!" Mendez barked._

_John and the other surviving Spartans saluted in unison. _

_"__Duty," Mendez said. "Honor and self-sacrifice. Death does not diminish these qualities in a soldier. We shall remember." A series of thumps resounded though the Atlas' hull as the canisters were hurled into space. He watched as the canisters drifted out one by one he felt like he was losing a part of himself. It felt like leaving his people behind. _

_"__Crewmen, dismissed." _

_He looked around the launch chamber and looked upon the faces that still remained. Sam, Kelly and thirty others stood at attention in there black uniforms. There were a dozen others, though, who had lived…but were no longer soldiers. It hurt him to look at them. Fhajad sat in a wheel chair shaking uncontrollably. Rene and Kirk were in neutral-buoyancy gel tanks, their bones had been so twisted they no longer looked human. There were others, still alive, but with injuries so critical they could not be moved. He rushed over and stopped the crewmen who were pushing the injured towards the elevator but he was interrupted by Mendez. _

_"__Let them go…they can't fight anymore." After discussing their future orders he walked with Mendez down the long hallway. _

_"__A leader must be ready to send their soldiers under his command to their deaths. You do this because your duty to the UNSC supersedes your duty to yourself or even your crew. After a long pause Mendez continued, "It is acceptable to spend their lives if necessary. It is not acceptable, however, to waste those lives. Do you understand the difference?"_

_"__I…I believe I understand, sir," He stated. "But which was it on this last mission? Lives spent? Or lives wasted. Mendez turned away from him and never answered. _

The question had always been in the back of his thoughts, typically locked away but found its way back drifting in his mind with painful memories. He'd always been taught that the UNSC is priority, everything and everyone is below the UNSC. Mendez's words strangely contradicted Commander Lasky's.

_"__Soldiers aren't machines…were just people." _

Somewhere in his early training he had put a barrier around himself, blocking him from emotions and feelings. Creating this fake reality that he was nothing more than a soldier who followed orders and he was military hardware that would give anything and anyone to the UNSC at all costs. Slowly the barrier had been cracking since waking up on Forward Unto Dawn and now right in front of him he watched as it collapsed reveling this harsh reality like bright light shining into a dark room.

Bright _blue _lights.

He zoned back into reality and watched as Cortana stood stiffly next to the Didact waiting for the Didact to give more details on her current order.

_"__Kill the Guardian, Cortana." _

Would she do it? Was she that lost? Was she really gone and broken? Should he just have accepted her death like he accepted his brothers and sisters? As the thoughts rolled through his mind he yanked at the chains in a desperate attempt to break free. The Didact turned around and walked over to him, his 11ft frame looked down at him. The Didact looked hesitate as if a new idea was rooming in his thoughts.

"Hand me an energy sword." He barked and in seconds he held the glowing purple and white blade in his hands. He walked over slowly and once more studied him. John braced himself expected to sword to slice through his neck. But instead, the Didact swung and broke the chains that restrained his wrists with a sizzling crack. He fell forward as he elbows slammed into the ground, unprepared for the sudden action. He looked up, unable to barely move as his feet were still chained on the wall. He used his upper body strength to try to snap the chains but found even his new ability was useless. He looked up, confused at the Didact.

The Didact grabbed Cortana and yanked her about a foot away from Chief and ordered her to not move at any costs obediently Cortana nodded and stood still, immobile.

"Cortana…Cortana please…Your better than this…remember…Cortana please." He begged hoping that he would see her blue eyes again. But sadly, her lifeless red eyes just studied him, she wasn't there.

The Didact reached for a Handgun that rested motionless on the floor. He gripped the Handgun in his right hand, and with his left picked up Chief with this telepathic power that made his insides feel as if they were caving in. He picked up Chief and clammed in hard on the ground so his knees were planted on the ground. He groaned at the pain that jolted up his back, the armor thankfully took most of the impact. The Didact grasped the Handgun in his hand and glanced at Cortana's immobile figure before speaking.

"You have one bullet, kill her." He handed the gun to Chief who hesitantly took it.

"Don't bother trying to shot me, you won't leave a dent." He added as if reading Chiefs thoughts. Chief glanced around the room trying to use this sudden gift to his advantage.

"Try using the bullet for anything else and I will make sure to keep you alive, just enough to be breathing." He added again.

He squeezed the gun in his hands and his eyes shut. "Cortana please…Cortana I need you…Just please remember…remember who you are Cortana." Fluid pricked at the corners of his eyes and he was startled not understanding what it was. The hot fluid suddenly flowed down his face and he realized that humanities hero, Spartan 117, Master Chief Petty Officer was…crying.

"Dammit Cortana, please, just wake up, get through it, I need you right now I can't!" Emotions flowed through him uncontrollably and he couldn't help it. He opened his eyes and looked at Cortana who stood there as if she was in another universe, not hearing a word he was saying.

"Humanities hero is on his knees crying and begging for mercy." The Didact stood there amused.

"You have 10 seconds or I will do it for you, it won't be quickly, and you will watch." He added and studied his face. How can anyone, any creature do this – torture. He lifted the handgun so it pointed directly at Cortana's head, right above her red eyes. He was so familiar with her face, the way she yelled at him, the way she laughed, the way she would make fun of the new Spartans on their internal com, the way she would quietly mock an officers command, question an order, get angry if someone questioned her calculations, the look on her face when she told her she wasn't coming with him, when she backed away. His arm was shaking uncontrollably; his hands were sweating as his grip tightened on the grip. He placed his index finger on the trigger – he wouldn't miss, he never misses. He took a deep breath as the silent clock ticked away in his head.

10

_They let me pick, did I ever tell you that? _

9

_Choose whichever Spartan I wanted. You know me. I did my research. _

8

_Watched as you became the soldier we needed you to be. _

7

_Like the others, you were strong and swift and brave._

6

_A natural leader._

5

_But you had something they didn't._

4

_Something no one saw... but me. _

3

_Can you guess?_

2

_Luck._

1

_Was I wrong?_

**_Bang._**

**A/N: Okay…So if you need a moment to recover like I did from just reading this go ahead and give yourselves ****_10 seconds _****before reading my end of the chapter spiel. I'm going to answer your first possible question – No this is not the finale chapter and this isn't exactly the end of our story folks. Just to give you guys a heads up, if the story isn't updated by Sunday morning then it won't be updated again for a solid week. I'm heading off to an "electronic free zone" and I won't even be able to check my PM's. So, if I don't get a chance to finish the next chapter by that time then don't expect any update. As usual, you guys are amazing for reading this and I am extremely appreciative for the feedback I have been getting from you guys! I apologize if I went too far off Chiefs character on that last scene but I didn't really want to dull down a dramatic moment. Please as always – Review and give me your thoughts! See you (hopefully) soon. **


	21. Frozen

_Who is a hero? Are there even heroes? Or are we just human? What defines us as saviors, as guardians, soldiers? Is it the way we run into a bloody battle field of Covenant, or preform a high risk medical procedure with a thread, needle and luck? Or is it simply a decision that risks our life, or our sanity?_

_Sometimes we make choices. Choices that will haunt us, the bad outweigh the good. Decisions come with a cost – the defeat sometimes to bitter for the victory. But sometimes…we don't even have a choice._

A Metallic smell filled his nose, it incased him. It went down his throat, in his lungs, over his body. He felt this weight on his back, like he couldn't breathe as if the ground has pinned him there forever – left to rot. He was motionless his arms still locked in the same potion. Sweat rolled down his back, his lungs sucked in shaky breaths. He had a sick feeling in his stomach, the same feeling when he watched his brother and sisters ashes get shot out into darkness, the same feeling when he encountered the Gravemind. 

The metal handgun was still clenched in his hands as the bang echoed around him.

Her black bloody hair covered her eyes so he couldn't see them. Her body suit was torn and dirty, scars covered her body. He watched as she fell to the floor in a heap, first her knees, then the arms. All of them buckled together and collapsed together in harmony.

Except he never pulled the trigger.

He held his breath his arms twitching as he practically dropped the handgun and watched it clatter to the floor. His body was shaking, he was in shock. Something he heard many of the ODST's and other Spartans experience after a traumatic battle. But his thoughts weren't there, he couldn't think. He couldn't process his next steps nor notice anything around him. It was as if something was squeezing his brain until it exploded. He suddenly remembered Johnson telling his once about how it's like being near a bomb when it explodes.

_"__Chief, what in hell were you thinking?" Johnson stammered as he lifted himself into the moving Warthog away from the sprawling grunts._

_"__I was thinking about exploding some grunts." He answered bluntly as he examined the fresh dents in his armor from the explosion._

_"__That was a big enough explosion to make even the egg heads crack, haven't you ever felt what it's like to be hit by a bomb?" Johnson shifted his sniper to the other arm while he waited for an answer._

_He thought about it for a moment and recalled many moments when bombs had exploded near his feet._

_"__Yes." He stated simply while checking his supplies for ammo._

_"__You mean with that fancy gear of yours? I'm sure that can't count. Besides, if you really knew what it felt like you wouldn't have set off the detonator a few feet from where you were standing." Johnson sighed._

_"__Well. What does it feel like then?" He asked without looking up from cleaning his gun._

_"__It feels like someone's taking your head and ripping it to pieces, while there covering your mouth, ears and stuffing your throat so you can't breathe. Your limbs feel like they're not attached to your body as your tossed feet into the air all while you feel like a piece of led." Johnson looked satisfied with his answer and studied Chiefs reaction._

_"__So…You have?" John asked curiously. _

_"__No. But I hell ain't trying" Johnson chuckled._

What felt like hours, but really was seconds he finally looked away from her limp body and took in his surroundings. He held his breath as he saw a silhouette in his view that stood a couple yards behind Cortana's body. He'd know who it was miles away. The silhouette held a weapon he'd never seen before and it aimed right at where the Didact _was_ standing.

Dr. Halsey.

**AN:/ No - for those of you who thought I died I'm still here…Otherwise you wouldn't be reading this… It's been wayyyyyyyyy to long. Ridiculously long. My lame excuses: I was busy, school, and was having serious writers block. But honestly, I'm sorry. For those who know me I usually update regularly, so this was kind of strange. As always you guys rock, and THANK YOU for 60 reviews , I was so shocked - (and I quote) "6 reviews? I should read. Wait..Hold up. There's another 0…60? What 60 reviews?! You guys are the best, please as always like/follow and review. Peace –**

**~ Halo4Ever**


	22. Time

_We will follow a brother into battle. We will fight until our last breath. We will never forget those who sacrificed. We will run into a battle knowing we won't return. We will bleed the last drop of blood on the already drenched soil. We will not cry for battles lost. We will not cheer for battles won. We will follow all orders. We will step in front of a bullet for our commanding officer. We will go down with the ship._

_We will trust no one. _

Chief felt like he was coming out of a cyro pod; the dizziness, the delusion, the muffled voices, the feeling of thick mucus in your lungs, feeling like you're going to be sick. The silhouette identified as Dr. Halsey moved closer. Everything looked hazy to Chief some noises too loud, some to soft. The smell of burning flesh and blood filled his nose, which made it all the more easily to vomit. He had no idea why Halsey was here, he couldn't even comprehend anything that was going on. It was a sick nightmare, even for the aging Spartan. He didn't know if this was a hostile rescue mission or just another twisted lie he was told. All he could focus on was Cortana's limp body on the metal floor. It made him wonder how many times she curled up in this prison and feel asleep like that, alone.

He still didn't understand Cortana's new abilities, didn't understand Halsey's place here, if Ryan was really dead, the footage of Cortana, the glowing walls, The Didact's complete plan, _where _the Didact even was, if Infinity was trying to contact him, if there are any other hostiles were here, what was happening to the Librarian, how many monsters were heading towards earth, how much time the human race has left, if he failed his mission, if Cortana was even alive. The questions his head pound even more and he had to push them side. But it was like quicksand in the desert the more you think the more you sink.

He focused his eye's back in, and noticed Dr. Halsey was bent over Cortana's body.

"Don't touch her! Don't touch her!" He yelled surprisingly with a hoarse voice as he thrashed at his chains uncontrollably angry. Halsey looked started and practically tripped over to Chief as if she forgot about him.

She slid in front him, but he wouldn't look at her. He couldn't get the image out of his mind when he saw the footage of her injecting Cortana, and calling her a monster. He felt sick.

"John." She said softly, but Chief could easily hear the fear in her voice. He continued to stare at the floor.

"John listen to me, I was captured here – traded. I was injected and I was controlled by the Didact. I was able to find the antidote, but were running out of time. Listen to me we need to get out of here. I was only able to time lapse the Didact for a few minutes. We'll inject Cortana and she can control the army so we can get out of here and get back to Infinity for reinforcement." She took a deep breath while craning her head to see his face.

"Cortana's dead." He looked at the limp body whispering the words.

Halsey cut the chains that bounded his feet, but even with his freedom he didn't move. He felt broken, like his armor was the only thing holding his body together. Halsey with a concerned look crawled over to Cortana and placed a needle in her neck, her hands shaking.

He heard a cough, and suddenly he perked up pushing his way over to Cortana and Halsey like he was crawling under barbed wire. He felt like he weighed a million pounds, so he couldn't even get on his knees. Cortana propped herself up on her elbows shockingly while Halsey helped her up slowly. She turned around, facing him and he sighed with relief when he noticed her eyes were blue. She let out a shaky laugh a smile churning on her face, and like Cortana even in the worst situations would find something witty to say.

"That was the highlight of my day." She chuckled softly while adjusting herself so she wasn't staggered on her injured side.

Ignoring Dr. Halsey she moved closer to him and sunk to his eye level.

"Are you okay?" She said worryingly and waited patiently for an answer.

He pushed himself up, hearing the clattering of his damaged armor as everyone got into a standing position. He couldn't believe she was here in front of him, either of them.

"Remind me to repair your armor when we get home." Halsey muttered at the sight, but notably she was just staring at his face, something that was rarely seen. Cortana hesitantly handed him his helmet but kept a tight grasp as if she didn't want to let go. Chief, had two hands on the helmet but didn't pull either, everything was different without the visor. Cortana hesitantly reached up and brushed her fingers over his scared cheek. He released one hand from the helmet and placed his hand on top of hers. He was amazed of the warmth of her skin, no longer was she a hologram he finally convinced himself.

"I've always wanted to do that." She added quietly with a small grin. She let go of the helmet and he slowly placed it back on with a small _hiss _of the airtight seal. He quickly glanced at Halsey who stood nervously shifting her stance.

"We only have 23 seconds until the time lapse runs off, Cortana what's your plan." She lit up her energy sword with her one arm that pronounced her dark circles under her eyes. Cortana walked over to a control panel and reached into the holographic light and snatched the control.

"Let's go kick some ass."

**A/N: So I'm going to try to post regularly again. Thanks for the review s, Pm's, follows, likes. It really means a lot to me. Sorry if this chapter was a bit fluffy…I tried to keep my inner child contained for you folks. Please review! It really helps me improve (negative or positive!) Thanks again guys!**


	23. Connected

Cortana flipped the controls in her hands. The blue lines shimmered up and down the small artifact.

"Halsey, how did you put the Didact in the time lapse?" Cortana spoke quickly as she found a second panel in the room.

"After I overcame the mind control serum and found the antidote, I checked multiple rooms and found an experiment room." She paused Chief noticed Cortana cringed at the word experimental.

"They had many weapons in the room, but one of them was glowing…calling to me…I quickly analyzed it and concluded it may be the only weapon that could stop the Didact." She spoke quickly then added, "We only have a few more seconds, Cortana…" She now sounded extremely tense.

"Hand me the weapon, quickly!" She yelled. Cortana then attached the control to the weapon and took a deep breath.

"Cortana what are you…" She cut Chief off.

"No time – Chief position yourself at the door, they might override the controls to get into this room. At any costs don't let them touch the panel." She turned on the weapon and it glowed to life, her blue lines were practically breathing and flowing with energy. She felt all of her energy build up inside her, it felt like she was flying but, out of control.

"Halsey, get behind that wall!" Chief pointed towards the wall quickly and Halsey took no time to rush over.

As if he was stepping out of a portal the Didact's armor and disgusting flesh appeared in fragments, then in one red burst of energy he was his same massive size again, and had a disgusting grin on his face. Cortana held her ground, her eyes glowing like blue flashlights, lines tracing up her skin, the weapon in hand she stood ready. Chief stood ready at the door, but he couldn't help but pay more attention to the Didact then his objective.

"You barbaric humans, you are a repulsive race. In minutes, there will be nothing you can do to stop me and my army from wiping out your hideous world from my galaxy!" He yelled angry, his voice echoing around the room.

"It's too late. There's nothing you can do." Cortana's voice sounded stronger and echoed.

The Didact looked venerable for a second, than an idea flashed across his face. Chief heard the door begin the open with a loud cranking noise. Chief stood ready and kept his light rifle steady for the new intruders. Suddenly he felt his insides cave in, his arms pulled back and the air taken from his lungs. The Didact was again using his telepathic power to lift him off the ground venerably. The Hunter walked in, its eye's blaring red and it made its way towards the panel.

"Cortana Shoot the weapon already!" Halsey yelled as she ran forwards and tried to slow down the Hunter.

The Hunter slashed Halsey in the stomach. Halsey fell backwards but was able to shove the energy sword in the monsters orange blood guts. Chief grunted as he felt his insides collapsing on each other.

"I can't! The Didact's energy is linked with Chiefs now if I shoot then Chief will go to!" She yelled over the pounding noise.

The Hunter staggered its way towards the panel and Cortana felt pure panic.

_If he touches the panel it will set this thing off and all of us will die. I have an idea, but it's going to suck. _

Cortana flipped the heavy weapon around towards her head and rested the hot metal onto her skin.

"I shoot myself you and all the Forerunners will disappear. My energy is now connected to everything. I unlocked the code. You want your entire race wiped out all it will take is me pulling this trigger."

_She thought back to when she made the walls go transparent and saw the galaxy in seconds. These lines, like the Janus Key are codes that connect us all to each other. Like a web, if I set this off then everything we know will collapse. _

The Didact hesitated for a second and let Chief drop to the ground. He grunted and coughed. Cortana didn't waste any more time, and before the Didact could do anything Cortana shot the blaring weapon at him which knocked everyone onto the ground as waves of energy bounced off the walls. It was almost too much. The Didact screamed and Cortana watched like the composer the Didact's armor and skin peeled away leaving his bones followed by them disappearing into the portal into nowhere. She fell to the ground dizzy and overwhelmed by the amount of power that coursed through her body. The blue light that filled the room drain away and the gray darkness returned with just silence. The smell of burning metal and flesh filled her nose and she gagged.

Halsey was the first to sit up her energy sword was dead on the ground she used her hand to hold the wounds on her stomach. Chief sat up coughing and wheezing to get air in his lungs. Cortana decided that the cool metal floor felt nice against her burning skin and was too weak to even sit up.

Halsey shook her head in disbelief, "Cortana you unlocked so many scientific questions I can't even process them." Halsey stated as she helped Cortana sit up. "It's absolutely unbelievable, I might not live long enough to document all of it." Chief stood up, his armor looked like it would fall off any second.

"Cortana, you're insane." He continued to cough while Cortana quickly got up and walked over to him.

"You okay?" She asked him the second time today and he just nodded in disbelief.

"The Didact, he's gone now?" He looked down at Cortana hoping for a positive answer.

"Yes. It's over." She nodded and reached over to Chiefs armor, she placed her hand on his chest plate and then took the bio foam and clicked it off.

Chief stayed silent as she walked away toward Halsey and helped her apply the bio foam.

"Cortana, you need some for yourself you going to need a blood transplant when we get back." Halsey looked at her with concern but Cortana finished off the last of the bio foam and just sighed.

"I'll be fine." She gave a weak smile then motioned for the open balcony were millions of monsters stood moments ago. Instead, they all denigrated and disappeared with the Didact. And now there laid an open field of rock and empty ships, it was almost unreal. Chief joined her silently behind her, with the same thoughts going through his head.

"Hate to break up the moment, but can we get the hell of this planet?" Halsey interrupted the silence as she held herself up against the wall. Chief chucked silently and Cortana smiled as she turned around and walked toward the door.

"We need a ride out of here." She closed her eyes for a second. "There enough ships here to evacuate the human race." She mumbled.

"Hope you know how to drive one of those things." Chief added.

"Don't you know me Chief? I know a lot of things." They walked out the door the only thing heard was there seemingly loud footsteps.

The meandered through halls, avoiding the mangled sky bridge. Halsey was continuously looking around and Chief could tell she was mentally noting things to write down her lab books.

_She's going to need a lot of them._

Cortana stopped at one room and opened the door. "I need to check something, quickly." They followed her in a dark room that was poorly lit by florescent lights.

She placed her hand against a wall panel and the rest of the lights turned on showing a box like room with what appeared to be a lab. She walked over to the locked door and placed her hand on the lock, with a click it opened and she walked into an empty room with a panel. Chief stood in the doorway slightly confused on what she was doing. Halsey stood right behind Cortana analyzing all of her movements. Cortana touched the panel and a holographic chip floated in the hard light, in seconds it seeped with color and became tangible. Halsey's mouth twitched as she held down a smile. Cortana gently took the chip and held it in her hand. Using her other hand she grabbed a tablet off the wall, and inserted the chip into the tablet.

She handed the tablet to Halsey before she spoke, "Most of the collected data, footage, information and experiments are on this chip. Figured you could occupy yourself with this since we have a long ride home," Cortana finished.

Halsey stared at the tablet like an animal in headlights, completely blown away and excited.

"Thank You, Cortana." She nodded honestly.

Cortana smiled then walked over to the other end of the room with a locked cabinet. Opening it showing at least 20 shining dog tags, she looked at them sadly, examining their names.

"These must have been all the UNSC soldiers captured and experimented on." She sighed then reached to the left unhooking one tag.

_Dr. Troy K. Taylor_

_Ex- 9964-34_

_5/29/2557_

She looked at it for another second then gathered the rest of the tags placing them in a metal container that rested open on an empty table.

Chief rested a hand on her shoulder and nodded,

"We can take them back, give them to the families." He stated sympathetically. It reminded her of when he was telling Dr. Tilton about the composer.

Cortana held the box as they walked through the halls finally reaching the door that let in sunlight. They all relaxed, even though it was hard to tell Cortana watched Chiefs shoulders relax a bit.

Cortana stretched a bit and leaned towards Chief.

"John." She said seriously. Chief lifted an eyebrow and leaned closer.

"You know, I can give you 10,000 reasons to why that sun isn't real." She smiled. He laughed quietly then added,

"I know you can Cortana."

**A:N/ I was so excited about this chapter I forgot to post the Authors Note. So again - No we are not at the end of the story. Trust me, not even close. Even though arguably that could have been the end, there's still a lot of unanswered questions. I really hope you guys are enjoying this, I'm really trying to think everything through (and even though it doesn't seem like it) I'm trying harder on my grammar. _Please _review it seriously makes my day. You guys are the best - stay classy. **


	24. It's Not Over

After spending a solid 10 minutes on finding a ship with enough supplies and fuel to return for Infinity the Spartan found himself once again in a mildly small space with nothing to do but think. Of course, unlike last time Cortana was here to fill in the silence. But he noticed she was different, she wasn't as energetic as he thought she would be. Then again, he didn't blame her. She looks exhausted, worn out, and in pain. Halsey with her instincts noticed this and dug through the medical supply quarters. A few minutes later Halsey had a handful of supplies and asked Cortana to follow her into the room. He decided to stay put and try to rest since he knew he'd been in for a lot when they returned to Infinity.

Cortana slide on the table, the ship tilted slightly to stay on the autopilot coordinates and Cortana groaned at each movements. Halsey was silent the first few minutes using stiches and wraps. She found a small dosage of morphine which Cortana did not deny. Eventually Halsey announced it may be more comfortable to go back into the other room, so she could sit in a more comfortable position. Cortana slid off the table and walked into the other small room where John was "sleeping", but with a nanosecond bio scan she knew he was wide awake his mind racing.

She watched Halsey bite her lips she knew well a habit they both had when they were trying to keep their mouth shut.

"Go ahead, ask away." Cortana sighed while looking down at Halsey who was wrapping her dislocated wrist. Halsey looked uneasy then finally spit out the first in her list of questions,

"How did you wake up?" She tried to focus on bandaging but Cortana could see she was eager for an answer.

"I just remember pain, darkness. I couldn't speak, I couldn't move. I was immobile. I heard voices, at the time I didn't know who but now I know it was the Didact and Dr. Taylor. They stabbed me in the leg with the syringe and immediately I woke up." Cortana stared in the distance as if she was reliving the memory.

"Your organic figure was at an insensible state and only about 44% of your brain was functioning, when you were given the syringe I'm assuming it was photeneinsous that awoke the rest of your neurological system." Cortana had no problem understand what the doctor was saying but she watched Chief shift in his chair uncomfortably because he had no idea what they were discussing.

"What happened next?" Halsey was asking her questions like she was another person, an experiment. This was typical for the doctor and Cortana wasn't mad, but the topic made he feel sick. She coughed before continuing and looked at the floor.

"Torture," Was all she could mumble out, the memory was almost too painful. Halsey picked up on this and lightly touched her uninjured shoulder.

"I'm sorry Cortana the science got the best of me. I'm going into the other room to look at the files…try to get some rest, both of you." She made eye contact with Chief who just gave a light nod as Halsey got up and went into the other room, the sound of the door gently closing.

For a few minutes the long sound was the hum of the engine as the 3 of them flew through empty space. With each passing star got closer to Infinity.

"I'm sorry I didn't get to you sooner." John spoke with unusual sadness. Cortana was still shocked by the amount of emotion he was expressing lately.

"Don't, don't you dare pin all of this on yourself." She spoke sternly at him, and stared into his visor.

"Cortana I'm not…" She cut him off, "I know you to well, and yes you are." They both sat there in silence until Cortana spoke.

"I'm sorry, I'm just exhausted. I'm having a hard time keeping a good attitude with everything that's happened." She looked down at her hands.

He didn't know what to say, but suddenly the air inside his helmet felt stale, like he was running out of air.

_This must be another emotion._

He reached up slowly and clicked the safety off his helmet, pulling off the orange and green helmet that guarded his face for so many years. Cortana just stared, and even though the visor was made with the clearest material on earth, the colors still looked a little different, like taking off shades.

"You know… If I didn't have you right now I wouldn't be allowed back at Infinity." He added with a small grin.

"Oh I know. I already tapped into your helmet recorder and saw that footage." She smiled broadly I can't believe you of all people yelled at High command." She shook her head.

"I can't believe you _already _tapped into my helmet." He pressed his lips together.

"I stopped myself I could watch all of it…" She looked away squeezing her eyes shut.

John shifted forward in his seat and tried to read the expressions on her face. It's kind of amazing, emotions, it's like another language.

"You were losing it John, practically going mental. You shouldn't have been unstable like that. It's not in your nature, and because of what I did back at New Phoenix I risked your record and your sanity. All because _I _couldn't hold it together…" Chief stopped her.

"If you didn't do what you did, then the human race would be extinct. Even just a few hours ago, if that didn't happen we would be in a bloody war right now and trust me, the UNSC could not have stopped it." She nodded as if she just came to the realization.

"But you…" Chief held up a hand to stop her. "But I cared." He finished and then replayed his own words in his head over and over.

_He cared? He didn't even believe what he was saying. The emotions were insane, he felt obligated to ask Halsey if it's some short of Spartan deficiency. But that's the truth right…? He cares. _

Her mouth fell open slightly, than she quickly closed it.

_For the first time he made the AI speechless. _

"I care to." She whispered, but with the Spartans hearing abilities he heard it, and she knew that to.

This time he didn't mind the silence, but like everything it was interrupted by something. Cortana jumped up and ran towards the controls and noticed that they were quickly approaching Infinity. She unset the Autopilot and took over the main controls, her hands at inhuman speed flashed across the control panel, her mind reeling.

"Chief, we are exactly 23 Kilometers from Infinity's boarding deck, exactly 4 minutes and 27 seconds. How do you want to handle this?" She glanced from the controls to look at him and the thought hasn't even occurred to him.

"Can you get a single connection of Infinity's reach points?" He spoke as he clicked on his helmet.

"Of course, do you want to talk to a specific person?" But her voice trailed off already knowing the answer. Chief stayed silent for a moment debating if it was a good idea.

"Chief we need to do something now before they label us as an enemy ship." She added.

"Connect me to Commander Osman." He spoke confidently. He glanced at Cortana who had a smile on her face that she was trying to contain.

"This is Sierra 117 requesting for immediate landing on boarding deck 3-387, do you read?" He waited for a response and heard a click followed by static. She was speechless.

"I'd pay money to see the look on her face." Cortana whispered, and he swallowed a laugh.

"Sierra 117 according to regulations 2776-8 you have been discharged of your services and are not permitted to board UNSC Infinity." Her voice sounded angry.

Cortana pressed the communicator on the panel and decided it was her time to talk.

"With all due respect Commander Osman, you stated with evidential proof that if the Master Chief was to return with my company the regulation chargers would be dropped." She unclicked the button and excitingly waited for a response. Chief stood stiffly, he had an exciting feeling in his gut. The same feeling he gets when he jumps out of a Pelican hundreds of feet in the air.

"CTN 0452-9, are you the one I'm communicating to?" She sounded shocked.

"My names Cortana Ma'am and yes, I'm back."

"You – You have permission to land on boarding dock 3-387." She shuttered then the radio went silent.

Cortana swiftly landed the ship in the landing port. The springs deployed and the hum dissipated as the _hiss_ of the ship sighed after a long trip. Cortana gripped the panel for support to keep her from collapsing. She didn't realize she was shaking. Halsey immerged from her room and stood behind Cortana, turned her around and examined her eyes.

He thought he saw Halsey whisper something in her ear. Cortana's face went flat then nodded stiffly.

"We need to get you popper medical care." She nodded towards Chief to open the door, but then quickly stopped him.

"You should know something Chief…" Chief quickly turned around and looked Halsey in the eye.

"I'm not exactly welcomed here…" Her voice trailed off.

"What do you mean?" He tensed a bit.

Halsey didn't get a chance to explain because the radio lite up.

"Sierra 117 please open the hatch doors for examinations." A male voice spoke over the comm.

Chief shot Cortana a glance, Cortana gave a worried look then looked away. There was something she knew. He wished she could still talk through his internal com. in his helmet.

Chief grabbed the lever and listened to the airlock seal open, fresh air filled the room and Chief was the first to step out. A swarm of doctors and what felt like every personnel on Infinity was screaming questions. He felt waves of discomfort because of all the attention. Cortana sensed this and stiffly stepped out behind Chief and slid her way to the front of the crowd. The crowd turned their attention to her and some even stepped out to try and touch her like she was some sort of animal. Chief stepped forward and motioned for Cortana to follow as they shoved through the crowd of hungry scientists.

"Chief, where is Halsey?" She yelled over the noise. They both turned around towards the ship they just departed from and immediately saw Halsey.

Halsey was pinned to the ground by two ONI Officers. Chief immediately pushed through the crowd effortlessly and was easily 3 feet above the officers.

"Let her up!" Chief barked, which ultimately startled many people since Chief wasn't one to talk.

"We have orders from Commander Osman to deliver Dr. Halsey to the UNSC 23 Unit Cell for interrogation. She's prisoner of the UNSC. Move aside soldier." They barked as the pulled Halsey off the floor. Chief was about to argue but then he heard screaming from the crowd behind him.

"Pin her down!" Another ONI Officer yelled, Chief turned around to two unconscious ONI Officers and Cortana pinned down by 3.

"Chief, get Halsey I'll be fine!" Cortana thrashed at the ONI Officers. Chief stood there frozen realizing that Cortana knew something that he did not.

"Let me up and I'll corporate! We're in need of medical assistance. According to UNSC Code Viper all integrators in need of medical assistance must be priority over High Command orders!" She continued to yell and thrash which tore at her stiches. Blood dripped on the sterile floor and one of the ONI officers began to whisper in his earpiece.

"Commander Osman, they are required medical assistance, what are your orders?"

"Take them to the lab, I'll be there."

"Yes Ma'am" The officer pulled Cortana off the floor and beckoned the other officers to follow.

Chief stepped in front of the officers, blocking there path.

"Move, under orders of ONI."

"Chief, don't." Her eyes were stern like she was piercing right through his visor.

Chief took a stiff sidestep and watched as Halsey and Cortana got pulled away, swallowing the angry words that filled his head.

**A/N: Okay…A little sappy? I'm really, really, really trying to keep the characters in check. This was hard for me to write, defiantly a bit out of my comfort zone but I'm trying new things. Thanks for staying with the story so far! Please review, it really helps my writing and makes my day! You guys are awesome! Thank You! **


	25. Fear

Cortana was pushed through a door she was already familiar with. She had Infinity's structure memorized down to the nail she was in Halsey's lab. The smell hit her nose right away, the smell of bleach, rubber and chemicals. It was strange, before she could never truly understand what people meant by "lab smell" but she knew well by now. It immediately reminded her of being strapped in the Didact's prison and it made her sick. Something snapped inside of her and she started to fight back.

"No, no, let me go!" She tried to fight the restraints that bound her wrists while the officers forced her in a chair. She immediately stood up taking her legs and doing a strong up kick into the officer's stomach he made a groaning noise and fell over. She side kicked the other who slammed into a wall. She used her elbows and basically any other part of her body to keep pounding the officer until he slide down the wall unconscious. Her heart was racing, and glancing down at her skin she noticed the blue lines pulsing like a heart. She knew that even with her body she couldn't have that kind of strength. She glanced around room and took the handguns off the ONI officers slumped on the floor and in potion slide again the wall checking for more officers. She took a quick scan, 3 officers on deck. There spread apart enough that she could slide through without noticing. She continued to scan for Dr. Halsey, but heard an officer approaching and she has to move. She slide out the doorway and ran as fast as she could while looking behind her.

Then everything slowed down she turned around and saw a person in front of her like a blur. Not being able to tell who it was she shoved out her hand and like a bomb of energy her hand came in contact with the persons chest plate, there was a shock of blue light like lightening, Cortana lifted her opposite arm and shielded her eyes from the light, whoever she had touched flew back and slammed against the closest wall. She looked up from her arm and held her breath.

Commander Palmer.

Commander Palmer pushed herself up and back on her feet observing the fresh dent in her chest place.

"Well, you've been working out." She grunted as she stretched her back.

"I'm sorry I didn't…" Palmer held her hand up cutting her off, "You're bleeding."

"What…?" Cortana looked down at her side wound. Her stiches reopened.

_Shit. _

"You haven't been given medical assistance?" She lifted her eyebrow.

"It hasn't exactly been the most welcome 'welcome home party' that we've had." Cortana mumbled. Before Palmer could say anything an ONI officer started running over.

"CTN 0452-9 UNSC Artificial Intelligence you're under Office of Naval Intelligence arrest for assaulting an officer." He grabbed Cortana's shoulder and turned her around and applied the handcuffs.

_I guess my tally is 4 ONI officers so far today._

"She needs medical assistance." Palmer stepped between the officer and Cortana.

"She denied the assistance, Commander. Now move aside!" He stated clearly annoyed.

"If you call medical assistance strapping me in a chair then I don't know what the hell assistance is!" Cortana shouted angrily. "Get these cuffs off of me and let me speak to Commander Osman!" She gritted her teeth and tried to hold down the rage boiling in her veins.

_If you get to angry you'll explode and if this officer finds out I'll be put up for questioning of working with foreign artifacts. _

"Officer, let her speak with Osman. I'm sure all of this is a misunderstanding." Palmer tried to speak soothingly but uneasiness wavered in her voice.

He grunted then shoved Cortana forward, "Let's go." Cortana started to walk in the direction she came from and they turned into the room next to Dr. Halsey's lab. It had a similar layout but it lacked the stacks of books and chemicals that Halsey had. But it had the same disgusting smell that made her gag.

"You are required to wear the straps. If you deny them you will not be permitted to speak with Commander Osman." He shoved her in the chair and began to apply the tight straps. She took deep breaths and squeezed her eyes shut. Her muscles were tense as she scanned around the ship and tracked how many seconds she had until Osman showed. 5, 4 ,3 ,2 ,1…The door slammed open and Osman stood above her ungracefully in 2 seconds.

"Who the hell gave you the right to take down two of my men?" She yelled and Cortana. Cortana knew better, to keep her mouth shut, respect High Command, like every soldier should. But to Osman, she was not a soldier she was hardware, and criminal.

"I've been held captive with the UNSC's most high risk enemy for months, constantly being experimented on and tortured, and this is how you treat me!" She could feel her skin heating up, the energy coursing through her becoming out of control. Osman looked startled at the blue lines that coursed her body and took a few steps back.

"Doctor, I want an analysis now!" Osman looked panic as the doctor ran over and glanced at his tablet.

"Ma'am levels are off the charts, I've…I've seen anything like this before!" Cortana watched as his eye's flashed around the tablet as if the answer would pop up in front of him.

"I want this _thing _sedated, now!" She barked as the doctor stiffly dosed the medicine and quickly checked the amount. Osman glanced at the doctor inpatient and snatched the syringe from his hand. The florescent lights flashed as Cortana consumed more energy and Osman took no more time and stabbed the syringe in her left leg.

_Funny, that's how I woke up. _

"I'm not a monster Commander, I'm just change." She mumbled as her heavy eyelids shut leaving her in darkness.

oOoOoO

Chief was furious, at the UNSC, at the Didact, at Dr. Halsey, at ONI. He wanted to punch something, and even though he had more important things to do Infinity's punching bag in the gym was calling to him every second. He made his way through the hallways, completely ignoring all the stares and questions. He shoved past them, for their own good. Finally he found an open control panel to contact Roland with.

"Roland." Was all he had to say, then the holographic AI light up as if he had been waiting for Chief the whole time.

"Where…" But Roland cut him off.

"Room 358, next to Dr. Catherine Halsey's lab," He spoke quickly and gave Chief a nod before he flashed away.

_Roland usually is one to ask questions, something told me he wasn't supposed to tell me that. Meaning someone is communicating with another High Command._

Chief jogged upstairs, he tried to keep himself from running to attract attention. But it doesn't matter because rumors spread like fire on this ship. The rebellious-human-saving-Spartan was back with a mysterious human hybrid Artificial Intelligence.

3 officers were guarding the door and as he approached he heard the safety's click off.

"You don't have permission to enter this room." One of them bravely spoke, Chief noted as he spoke his gun shifted slightly. He wasn't a good multi-tasker. He heard the clicking of boots and turned around. Commander Sarah Palmer walked down the hall, hands by her side.

"There's no point going in there Chief, she's sedated." She sighed.

"Sedated?" Even though Palmer couldn't tell his mouth was wide open.

"She had a panic attack on Osman since they strapped her in a lab chair. Osman ordered sedation and now they're giving her medical treatment, but that's there excuse for taking samples." She glanced towards the officers then took a step closer, "I tried to stop them, but lately ONI is being stick asses." She whispered silently. Chief just nodded and looked towards the room with an unsettled feeling in his gut.

"Chief, what happened back there?" She said even more softly, it surprised Chief. Sarah has a strong personality and this softer side is almost startling.

"More then you know…More then we know…More then I know." He shook his head. There was so much to process, he just wanted to sit down and close his eyes to make the pounding thoughts go away.

She nodded and knew that was a good place to drop the subject. "Go talk to Lasky, he's in a meeting…But you're the acceptation." She turned around and began walking away.

He walked past the officers who kept their guns stead on him until he was out of sight.


	26. Machine

Everything was the same, the hallways, the uniforms, the machines. It didn't appear he missed out on much, but of course that's almost never true. Once he reached Lasky's door he politely knocked and waited for an order.

"Who is it?" Lasky's voice called.

"Master Chief Sir." He responded, arms behind his back.

"Please, come in." He sounded almost relieved. Chief opened the door to 6 ONI Officers and Lasky who looked like they were in the middle of an argument.

"If this is a bad time Sir…" Lasky held up a hand. "Gentlemen, if you could excuse me for a few minutes. We can continue this conversation soon." The officers looked disappointed as the filed out the door shooting Chief angry looks on the way out. After the door shut and the shadows under the door disappeared Lasky leaned against his desk and placed his hand on his forehead.

"I'm glad you and Cortana are back safely. But what in the hell happened?" Lasky shook his head.

"I don't even understand all of it Sir, it's so much to process. Cortana is the better one to ask…" His voice faded.

"I can't." Lasky stated simply.

"Sir?" Chief lifted an eyebrow under his helmet.

"She's ONI's scape goat for the New Phoenix incident. The public has been demanding information and who's at fault and ONI didn't want to say it was their own." He looked towards the floor.

"So you're telling me, Cortana is being accused of working with the Didact and ultimately murder?" Chief couldn't even swallow this.

Lasky just shook his head. "I tried to argue, but ONI needs proof. Chief, do you have any proof besides your word?" Lasky looked hopeful at Chief who just stood there thinking.

"The tablet," He mumbled.

"The tablet?" He looked confused and waited for Chief s further explanation.

"There was a tablet Sir, Cortana gave it to Dr. Halsey. It supposedly had almost all the information on it from the experiments. Where is Halsey? She'll have it."

"Chief it was confiscated by ONI, is there anything on that tablet they could use against her?"

"A lot," His arms tensed up at the thought. "She was under mind control, by these injections. Which are the same injections that were mixed with her DNA that gave her these insane ability's. Then her DNA was injected into the Didact's 'soldiers' and they were going to go basically slaughter earth if it wasn't for Cortana's quick thinking after she received the antidote by Dr. Halsey.

"I see. But ONI could easily twist that in their favor." He twisted his dog tags in his hands while he thought. Chief glanced at the dog tags, they weren't his. Attached to it was a small rock that was smooth around the edges. Chief immediately realized what it was and was in awe that he had kept it all these years.

"Sir, if I can speak to Cortana. We can fix this."

"She should be out of her sedation by now." Lasky added. "Go, quickly." Chief saluted and made his way towards the door when Lasky said,

"Chief, good luck, both of you." It was almost the same thing he said when they were defeating the Didact at new Phoenix. Chief nodded and closed the door behind him.

Chief made his way back to the room pushing past every person in his way. Oddly enough the room wasn't guarded and he opened the door quickly and closed it behind him. Cortana tilted her head, a sad look on her face. Chief walked over without saying anything and reached for a knife he kept in one of his compartments. Slowly he cut he strap that pinned Cortana to the chair. She sat up holding her head. Chief noticed that at least treated her wounds, and put her in new clothing.

"I'm sorry. I snapped, I couldn't control myself," She looked at the ground.

"It's okay, you had a right to. But we have bigger problems now." He said softly. She looked up confused as she tried to read his expression through his visor.

"ONI is blaming me for what happened." She spoke quickly realizing the answer. Chief just nodded and looked at his hands.

"Chief, don't ruin your record because of this. Let me just tell the truth and if they don't accept it…" Chief cut her off.

"Then what Cortana, what will they do? They'll throw you in a cell to rot and test you every day for their own greedy reasons!" He was yelling and it even shocked himself, Cortana's mouth dropped. After a few seconds she reached up and placed her hand on his shoulder. Chief looked at her wrists that were raw from the restraints.

"We'll fix this. We always do. I have a plan" Chief smiled at this, thank god he didn't have to think anymore.

"What's your plan?" He stood up.

"To give them what they want."

oOoOoOoO

Halsey was bad at sitting still. She always wanted to be thinking, moving, analyzing. But with her hands cuffed in a small interrogation room in what could be considered the "basement" of Infinity all she could do was focus on the humming noise from the pressure in her ears. She shifted uncomfortably and waited for the 'good cop, bad cop' routine that supposedly worked. But, she would cooperate. Whatever it would take to get her out of this room and someplace nicer, but even she knew that it wouldn't matter. ONI and the UNSC for that matter would always hate her for capturing innocent children, for having the Janus Key, and for not obeying there rules. No matter what she says, or what's she's done in the past few months, they'll always see her as a criminal. The only thing keeping her mind at ease is that she was able to help John. They can kill her for all she cares, even though she hasn't been able to learn everything she wanted to learn in her life, dying would be okay.

"Dr. Halsey," Said a male voice as he opened the door and quickly closed it.

Halsey didn't respond just watched the man as he sat down across from her. He had grayish hair, plain brown eyes and a frown plastered to his face. He clasped his hands together and took a deep breath.

"You're supposed to be dead." He stated annoyed.

"What a nice icebreaker." Halsey sighed and sat back in her cold metal chair.

"Back on Requiem we have documented that you quickly threw the Janus Key to Thorne just as Commander Sarah Palmer arrives.'Mdama summoned the Promethean Knights to protect him, where Commander Palmer attempted to assassinate you but only managed a shot in your shoulder, 'Mdama soon escapes with the help of a Promethean Knight with you as his hostage." He took a deep breath to finish the sentence.

"Commander Sarah Palmer _and _Majestic tried to assassinate me." Halsey corrected.

"I see your misunderstood Doctor. Majestic was there to stop the assassination." He glanced at her confused. Halsey was shocked I guess there was some good in this world after all.

"You also, don't have the Janus Key Officer." Halsey shifted in her seat.

"What do you mean by that?" He clenched his jaw.

"You only have _half _of the Janus Key. There is two pieces that is the only way it can be activated. It was given to me by the Librarian who trusted me with it only."

"What can it do?" He held his breath.

"Locate every Forerunner artifact in the _galaxy. _It's like a documented catalog. But as I said before, you need both halves." A smile threatened to show on her face.

"What happened after you were held hostage doctor?"

"We made an agreement, that I would help me and he would give me something in return." She looked in the distance like she was reliving the memory.

"Revenge," The doctor looked shuttered at the words.

"How did you return with the Master Chief and the AI?" He leaned forward even more as if he was hungry for the answer.

"He traded me to the Didact in his underground base at which I didn't know existed. There I was injected and had to do multiple tests. The Didact wanted to see my reactions compared to Cortana's. I didn't react the same, the mind serum worked but I didn't gain the same ability's Cortana has. He concluded that the only way the DNA would work was with AI's. This is why Promethean Knights were amongst his army, they could be controlled. That was another part of the deal, 'Mdama would be his second in command, and together they would take down humanity." She finished off. This was a lot for the Officer to take in. He shifted uncomfortably and had a strained look on his face as he planned his next question.

"How did you overcome the serum?"

"It had flaws, it wasn't 100% prefect. There were certain times were I was at my normal state. In those times I was able to track the antidote that Dr. Troy Taylor created and inject it in myself. On the day of the release, however, I couldn't stop the others from being injected without being caught. I had to wait. When I realized Cortana was the one controlling them because she was under the serum as well I knew that if I was able to sidetrack the Didact somehow then that would give me enough time to inject Cortana and she could stop the army." She was frustrated with so many questions.

"But Cortana was the one controlling the army you said?" He chewed on his lip impatient.

"Yes but …" She was cut off.

"So Cortana is responsible for the events that occurred…" It was Halsey's turn to interrupt now.

"Did you miss the part when I said _control serum_? She stood up frustrated. The door burst open and another Officer who she recognized right away stepped in the room, gun pointed at her.

"Sit down!" Commander Osman yelled.

Halsey sat slowly mentally wishing she created laser visor to burn their arms off.

"We have proof of the events, the tablet and your information but we still don't have proof that you or Cortana was working with the Didact." The officer stood up frustrated. Osman shoved him out of the way and placed her hands on the table.

"Where is the other half of the key?" Her voice was filled with anger.

"Why in the hell should I tell you?" Halsey stared back into Osman's grey eyes.

"If you don't, then you and Cortana will be thrown in a cell to rot." She stood up her mouth twitching.

"How can you throw Cortana in jail when she has almost nothing to do with the Janus Key?" Halsey yelled.

"Almost?" The Officers eyebrow lifted.

_She said too much._

"Is Cortana in anyway linked to the Janus Key? Osman spoke quietly. Halsey stayed silent.

"If you don't tell us we will go by assumption and Cortana won't even get a trail." She added.

Halsey squeezed her eyes shut and took a deep breath.

_I'm sorry._

"Yes, she is." She kept her eyes shut until she heard the sound of footsteps and the door slam leaving her in silence.

oOoOoOo

Cortana flung herself back in the chair and replaced the straps. Chief looked confused at her sudden action.

"Osman's coming, Chief go," She spoke quickly.

"I'm not leaving." He stood taller.

"Why do you have to be so stubborn?" She whispered before the door opened to Osman whose face was red with anger.

"You have a part with the Janus Key which makes you properly accused to be partaking with the enemy." She strode over to Cortana and completely ignored Chief.

"Do you or do you not, we know the answer so tell the truth." She leaned over Cortana who pressed herself deeper into her chair. Chief took a step forward and debated how fast they could get away if he killed Commander Osman.

"I – I don't know what you're talking about." Which was the truth, what the hell is she talking about?

"Take her to brig C7, now!" She barked at the two officers standing beside her.

They went to cut the straps when they realized they were already cut. They glanced at Osman who immediately turned around towards Chief.

"I'll let it slide this time soldier, but you already burned your bridge with me once, don't do it again." She was practically spitting out the words.

The officers were dragging Cortana away when she shouted.

"If you put me in jail, I'll have gain privacy rights meaning unless without reason you can't do tests on me. I'll let you, and I'll tell you everything. I even have footage." They halted before they opened the door. Cortana was tense as she waited for this to sink in.

"What do you mean you have footage, Cortana?" She questioned.

"I'm an AI, I record everything." She chewed on her lip.

"But you're not in a chip compartment, how can you record anything?" She said shocked.

"My mind, you can enter my mind." She glanced at the doctor with anger.

"Cortana ..." Chief took a step forward.

"Chief, it's okay." She stated reassuringly.

"But that involves using medication that has banned by the UNSC Medical Research." He stated annoyed.

"Well, we'll make an acceptation this time." Osman said with a smile lifting on her features.

"You're honest Cortana. You may even be classified as Commander of _hardware _one day." Osman laughed and headed out the door. Chief was clenching his fists and once again thought about asking Cortana how many escape pods were on this ship.

Cortana was dragged out and the door shut behind her.

_When this is all over, promise me you'll figure out which one of us is the machine._

**A/N: So, if you didn't understand some of the chapter that may be because you need to check out Halo 4 Spartan Ops. Then trust me, this will make a lot more sense. Again, I was unsure about this chapter. If any of this would even happen. But like all governments, there's always loopholes and unfairness. ****_Please _****review it makes me extremely happy. You guys rock, stay awesome.**


	27. Not Yet

Cortana's hands felt clammy, she practically chewed a hole through her lip, and she debated how long it would be until she got sick. She sat there, waiting, for the swarm of doctors to return with all their needles and probes. Her wrist band was labeled "CTN 0452-9"Osman wouldn't even the allow for her true name.

_Is my name Cortana or will I always be CTN 0452-9?_

She shifted in the bed and ignored her raw wrists from the straps. This time they took the precautionary of making them thicker so they couldn't be cut. Strangely enough Cortana noticed it was made out of a magnetic material, which wasn't something that was common. The florescent lights made her eye's water, or maybe that was the fear. She didn't even know at this rate. She thought when they would get back here people would accept it, ask a few questions, and move on. But instead she got tackled and thrown around like an animal.

She heard the click of a door and snapped her head in that direction, she was so caught up with her thoughts she didn't even realize there was a person nearby. The door opened and closed faster then she could blink. The rest of the lights flicked on and lite up the rest of the room reveling her I-really-hate-you-a-lot person. Commander Osman.

"Ready CTN 0452-9?" She had a smile stretched across her face.

"My names Cortana," She spit out the words like they were venom.

"Is that the way you talk to the highest ranking commanding officer?" She tilted her head. Cortana took a deep breath and gritted her teeth.

"Ma'am, it would be much appreciated if you called me by my preferable name, Cortana." She said in the kindest voice she could choke out.

"Well, you file reads CTN 0452-9, so that is what I'm calling you." She placed the tablet on the table and typed in a few things.

"Are we beginning…Ma'am?" She pressed her lips together.

"Yes, but not here." She had this excitement in her eyes like an animal with prey.

"Ma'am?" She questioned, she was unprepared for this. Instead of answering she typed a few things on her tablet and the straps popped off the chair like magnets but stayed fastened around her wrists. Osman pulled her off the chair forcefully and the straps and her wrists bonded with each other like handcuffs.

"Move," She shoved Cortana in the direction of the door. Cortana walked obediently as Osman led her down multiple hallways. Cortana immediately knew where she was heading and got weak in the knees at the idea.

Osman paused at the double doors and turned towards Cortana. "You will follow every order, do I make myself clear?"

"Yes Ma'am." She held her breath as Osman opened the doors and shoved her through. Doctors, agents, reporters, basically anyone interested in the latest UNSC findings were crammed in the room with recorders, camera's and questions.

She glanced around scanning every face, matching everyone with certain files so she knew what she was up against. Osman pulled her up onto the stage and placed her in front of a podium. Before she could move the magnetic straps unbounded from each other and attached tightly to the podium. Cortana's fingers started tingling and she looked down and noticed two small disks that glowed a light blue under her hands. Two doctors filed onto the stage and told her to tilt her neck. She cringed as a needle was pushed into her neck and she felt a cool frost enter her veins and up to her head.

She knew the medication right away it was a work of Halsey's. The panels under her hands would project all her 'recorded' moments from her mind onto the wide screen that stretched behind her. She started to shake, like they were going to reach inside her mind and invade the last bit of privacy she had. The place where she always escaped, the thoughts she always kept were about to be invaded because of the hungriness of scientists. She took a deep breath and swallowed the lump in her throat and blocked the yelling doctors and there ignorant questions. Instead, she looked towards the back of the room and noticed Lasky and Chief slide though the door unnoticed. Chief froze and Cortana could conjure up multiple expressions that were possibly on his face behind the visor. Lasky crossed his arms and had an upsetting look on his face. Lasky pushed through the crowd, Cortana realized he was making his way to Sarah Palmer who had a look of disapproval, her eyebrows scrunched together. Chief however made his way closer to the front his fists clenching and unclenching.

Cortana mouthed 'don't' in hopes that Chief got the message. He stopped himself and slid to the side of the room but still in sight with a tense stance.

"My comrades," Osman's voice boomed over the speaker. "Tonight the Office of Naval Intelligence medical branch will showcase possibly the biggest scientific breakthrough every witnessed by mankind. Our subject, CTN 0452-9 originally in the form of a holographic Artificial Intelligence has been successfully transported into a working organic body and managed to withhold most of its AI ability's." Cortana watched as Chief's arm twitched at the word '_it'. _

"The AI Hybrid has new abilities that will be demonstrated multiple times in this footage…" She began to briefly fill in the audience at what happened at New Phoenix and the composer, and what she knew of these past events. It was disgusting - they shined the light on themselves, like they were the hero's. She could feel her skin heating up, the lines growing. She quickly took deep breaths to calm herself down. Now is not the time.

"Place your hands on panels." Osman barked. Cortana shifted her hands slightly so they hovered over the panels. She took a deep breath and pressed her hands down, she felt the frost strengthen like someone was numbing her mind. It was almost painful she leaned over a bit and squeezed her eyes shut. She heard the murmuring of doctors as they took note of her reactions. She tried to focus on what they were saying but instead heard Chief's armor as he moved closer.

_Please Chief, don't._

The pain eased slightly and she opened her eyes letting in the light from the room and the hushed doctors. She turned slightly and saw the screen lite up it showed her back on the metal table with the Didact and doctor. Even though her eyes were still closed and they couldn't see it, she knew where she was. It was strange, during that time she didn't even know who she was but her mind knew everything, watched everything. Currently her eyes were closed but still they heard the voices.

_"Please…Help…Let me die…Please…" She sobbed._

_"The construct is near completion." Spoke Dr. Taylor._

_"Wake her now." The Didact barked._

She cringed at the remembrance of the needle and the watched as her eyes flashed open. She watched herself look around and as the needle was pulled out of her leg. She heard mummers as doctors pointed at their collogue Dr. Taylor.

_"__I thought he was dead." One of them whispered. "There in for a lot," Cortana thought._

_The voices stopped as they watched the Didact lean over the table into her field of view._

_"__What__is your name?" He said leaning close to her, with an intimidating smile._

_"I…I don't remember." She heard the struggle in her voice._

_"Tell me your name!" His yelled_

_"I," Followed by the Didact slapping her across the face._

She glanced at Chief who's arms dropped by his side.

_"__What are you thinking Chief?" She thought to herself._

The next few seconds of footage was hazy, it was like a fast forward of everything that happened in New Phoenix.

_"__Amazing, I must have been so deep in thought that it actually was imprinted on my membrane…" She thought to herself. _

_Her eyes snapped back open followed by the Didact's booming voice. "I will ask one last time. __What __is your name?" _

_"Why should I tell you?" Her voice was cold._

_She watched as she was levitated from the platform and she could hear herself gasping for breath, followed by being thrown against the walls with a sickening crack._

_"See? Was that so hard?" He said with innocence. _

_He walked over to her, his 11ft body towered her, and she remembered the fear, as if he was standing right there – watching her._

She continued to watch and remembered all her thoughts, the only thing truly private to her. How she wanted to die, how she just didn't want to breathe anymore. Every once in a while she heard the doctors talk again while the Didact discussed his plans like they were watching some sort of battle plan. She was sickened by it.

oOoOoO

John wanted to kill some people. Preferably this entire room of people excluding a few, they can't just strap her up there and show everything that happened! He wanted to be sick about all the things that happened so far and they werent not even that far into the footage.

_It's my fault. It _was all that kept repeating in his head.

_That's not even the best part." The Didact sounded amused. "The greatest threat to the Forerunners has a weakness." There was a pause which gave John enough time to fill in the blanks._

"He's talking about me." He whispered.

_"He will easily be defeated once you go through your augmentations." He said quickly._

_"Augmentations…?" Cortana's voice was barely a whisper._

_"In a week, you will be taken to the lab. Implanted memories and molecules will go in your brain, brainwashing if you will. You will help me defeat the threat if you like it or not." He said plainly._

Chief wanted to stop everything there they had their proof that Cortana was innocent. It's time to shut it down.

He watched in horror as Cortana attacked the Didact, failing, and was once again thrown against the wall.

_"Please. Someone help me." She whispered before her eyes closed again._

If I'd known, I would come sooner, I would have I swear. I shouldn't have left you at the composer, I should have made you go with me, and we could have prevented this.

The doctors took this gap of time and discussed their thoughts, but he ignored them and focused on Cortana. Her eyes were glazed over, her hands glued to the panel. She leaned against the panel for support like she was going to fall over he wanted to rip off the straps and run out of the room and completely disappeared.

The thought completely startled him. He _wanted _to leave the UNSC, his home.

He leaned against the wall mostly for support as he watched the next set of footage. He felt a smile creep on his lips as he watched Cortana argue with Dr. Taylor and knocked him out taking his gun. But the smile faded as the Didact burst through the door. He yelled at her and through her once again across the room,

_"__What do you want with me?" Cortana shirked._

_"__You'll find out soon." The Didact hit her over the head, and for the third time she passed out._

After she awoke again, Chief saw it. The metal chair with the straps – this is why she freaked out earlier. He only saw what she saw and his heart began to race. He didn't know what was happening, what was that noise? But then he heard her scream as about ten needles injected through her and it made him feel weak.

_"__This is as bad as Spartan augmentations." _He remembered painfully thinking to himself.

He looked over to Cortana who was practically holding herself up by her wrists, her head down. He wanted to run up there, but he knew that would only make things worse.

Dr. Taylor and Cortana had a bitter conversation followed by her receiving the same combat clothes he found her in, and what she recently changed out of. The clothing seeped with color and became tangible. Some doctors began to scream questions at Cortana who just looked away shaking her head.

But what he saw next was exactly what he knew Cortana feared.

_"Are you ready to begin Cortana?" Dr. Taylor spoke as he wrote things down._

_"Can you at least tell me the purpose of all these tests?" Cortana rolled her eyes._

_"We are seeing how much you can handle in your new state, we are testing everything…Including your emotions. Now shut up and get on the platform. "He shoved her forward and hurried off into the glass room. _

Chief listened to Cortana taking a deep breath.

_Laser beams formed around her tracing the room with a sharp light, suddenly a Hunter appeared beside her. It pounced at her at once and she sprinted to the other end of the room._

_"Is this the physical or the emotional test?" Cortana screamed at the doctor, through the glass._

Chief watched her eyes bounce across the room, she was looking for ammo.

_"No weapons? How good do you think I am?" She screamed once again and dodged the Hunter._

_"I thought you were smarter than this, think Cortana think." Dr. Taylor spoke sternly._

_The Hunter charged toward her and she barely dodged the loud blast of its fuel rod. The beam skimmed her right shoulder tearing the suits fabric and blood took its place. _

Chief heard her breath quicken, her eyes squeezed shut. He knew she was thinking.

_"__Think Cortana, think." He thought to himself even though he knew that would do no good._

Some of the doctors stood up and walked closer to the projection as if that would reveal their answers. Cortana's skin closed and her eyes lit up. On the projection, it just looked bright but you could still see beyond it. The lights flickered and she screamed. You could see the bursts of energy radiating around the room. The doctors began to yell at each other, some had to sit down. It was too much.

Chief watched as the doctor stammered a few things and the Didact burst through the door pinning her against the wall.

_"You hold great power, and I intend of using all of it. Enjoy the control while you can, soon I will control you and your power, and the Guardian will be dead." His smile grew and he dropped her to the floor._

Cortana's breaths quickened, and he clenched his fists. She was crying. He was the Guardian, the Didact plotted for his assassination. The Didact knew that Cortana would have to do it, he just didn't know when. It almost did, if it wasn't for Halsey.

Cortana crawled in a corner and placed her head in her knees. The next set of footage was surprising; it was the doctor who talked quickly explaining in detail what the Didact planned. Cortana argued and brought to light the Didact's true intentions. He watched as the Didact and Cortana fought, his mouth wide open at the horribleness of it. He watched gruesomely as the Didact plunged the energy sword into the doctor and dropped the limp body next to Cortana. Blood dripped on her as she started to scream, her throat sounded raw.

He ripped his eyes off the projection and to Cortana. Cortana began to pull at the restraints and collapsed hanging by her wrists. Her skin was glowing, something Chief was familiar with now and she started to scream shaking her head. He pushed his way through the crowd. He couldn't take it anymore, he easily and ran up to her shoving his way past to ONI officers who threatened to shoot him.

He placed his hands on Cortana's shoulders with his gloved hands and watched as tears streaked down her face.

"That's enough! It's too much! Stop!" He screamed to Osman who stood amused with her arms crossed. Cortana's screaming filled the room, in the projection Cortana was just whimpering.

Cortana suddenly shoved herself onto her feet, her eyes glowing. The doctors took pictures and started yelling.

"That's enough!" Her voice filled the room as the energy burst from her and the lights flickered. The medal straps broke and the projection died.

It was absolute insanity. Doctors began to yell and argue ONI officers couldn't keep people from shoving their way towards Cortana and screamed questions. Cortana fell over and Chief caught her, avoiding her to fall on the ground. He pushed her back up gently and immediately she took the opportunity to start running. Chief shoved after her and in the process knocking at least three ONI Officers out cold. He followed Cortana as she pushed her way out the doors and she sprinted down the hallway. He was amazed how fast she was, she had Spartan speed which must have been caused by her augmentations.

She kept running, and he followed as she rounded every corner until they ended up on the sky bridge. She completely fell over and grabbed the railing as if she was jumping out of a plane. She was gasping for breath and shaking as if she was in shock.

He couldn't even image. When you're a soldier, you have horrible moments. Moments that you would have rather died from then experience. Most times the soldier would go into shock, depressed, and would experience hallucinations after. However, the memories of the events were never clear. They were in pieces, broken. Cortana however basically just had to relive in high definition a fraction of what she had been through, every noise and every drop of blood. He didn't blame her for her actions, not even for a second.

He didn't know how to comfort people. He didn't know what to do, what to say. Usually he would just carry them to the medical tents and let the doctors take care of that part. But this situation was very different. He used his left arm and unclicked the safety to his glove on his right arm. He slipped the glove off and noticed his skin was pale and rough. He leaned over and placed his hand on her raw wrists gently. Her skin was burning, and he almost felt obligated to call a doctor, it made his nervous.

Cortana looked up with tired red eyes and forced a smile.

"I'm sorry I didn't mean to run off like that." She shook her head.

"Cortana," He said as gently as possible, "You had every right to. They mistreated you." He reached up and unclicked his helmet. She just stared for a moment.

"We don't earn our titles Chief, we are given them." She said quietly. He lifted an eyebrow confused by the quote.

"You can kill one grunt and be called a hero, you're respected, your human, and you've earned it. But to those people I'll always be a machine an experiment, something to test on. Don't you see Chief? It doesn't end today, tomorrow or the next day. What are they going to do when they find out my DNA is the key to immortality, when they find out I'm connected to the Janus Key, when the public hears about me? Some will try to kill me some will try to take me, for my DNA, my body. This will never end." Tears slowly made their way down her cheek towards her jawbone, her hands shook.

The thought never occurred to him, there were so many aftermaths to this one thing. I guess that's how war starts, something simple builds on another, and another until you can't find that one thing anymore.

He reached up and wiped her tears away with his thumb.

"We will get through this Cortana." He said sternly. "It's not over." He added with the same serious tone.

"Not yet." She nodded.

**A/N: This has to be one of the longest chapters I've written. If it's confusing, I'm sorry. I tried to keep clarity between the shifts in past and present but I found it a serious challenge. Please review, that you so much to those that have contributed their thoughts and reviews. It's absolutely amazing. Please review, it really makes me happy! Thanks again guys!**


	28. Madness

Madness – Commander Sarah Palmer couldn't think of a better word to suit the scene of angry eggheads and stick ass ONI officers. Cortana and Chief fled out the door moments ago and Sarah was in awe at the amount of disarray in the small presentation room. She glanced to her left and noticed Lasky holding his head as he made his way over to her.

"This is ridiculous." Infinity's commander bluntly stated.

"What do they want so badly?" She shook her head like it would wake her up from this dream.

"Immortality," Lasky mumbled.

"What?" She said shocked.

"Cortana, she has this sort of immortal DNA, and there's proof it works. But they don't know that. That's what there here to figure out, all the scientific advances." Lasky gestured to the doctors.

"If they find out…" She leaned closer and kept her voice low.

"You don't want to know." Lasky looked at his feet. Of course, Sarah had many ideas bubbling in her head, all of them ending with war.

"Does this make Cortana a threat?" She was slightly saddened by the idea.

"She is until we get protection rights, but only ONI can grant that, and they don't want her to have those rights. Even with the rights, if any of the other races or even the public, the UNSC will be under fire." He sounded hopeless.

Sarah could no longer think. The noise was too much, and her patience was wearing thin.

"I'm finishing this." She ripped a flare gun off Lasky's belt which made him jump, unprepared, and quickly made her way up to the panel where Cortana was chained minutes ago.

She pointed the flare gun towards the metal ceiling and pulled the trigger, releasing a bright flare that soared up until it crashed into the wall created a loud bang and hot sparks that drifted down like falling stars toward the ground. Everyone froze, some even dropped to the ground with silence.

_Finally._

She thought to herself in relief. Lasky looked horrified but even she noticed the smirk that was on his face.

"Hey!" She screamed as loud as she could to hush up the last of the egg heads that boiled. "Everyone better take a seat and shut up unless they want their own personal Spartan as a cushion seat!" The doctors shot dirty glances as they slowly returned to their seat and chatted annoyed with their neighbors. Sarah walked off the stage when Osman grabbed her shoulder.

"That action commander was irrational –" Sarah cut her off.

"Irrational is when you lock up one of our own who is in need of help for your own greedy purposes!" Sarah pulled back quickly realizing she just yelled at her commander.

Oddly, instead of scolding Osman just stormed off slamming the doors on her way out. Sarah made her way back to Lasky who looked slightly stunned as she returned back in her previous position standing by his side. She didn't say anything as she harsher than necessary shoved the flare gun back in Lasky's belt. Lasky just shot her a glance as she crossed her arms like nothing happened.

She studied the ceiling and tilted her head.

"You might want to get that dent fixed, it's a bit unsightly." She commented on her own doing.

Lasky just let out laugh and looked around the audience of doctors. One of them caught his eye. His eyes were bright blue, unnatural. He looked nervous and every few seconds he scanned the room as if he was looking for something, or someone. He had a black and blue bruise poorly hidden by his lab coat on his arms and neck, the man looked like he just jumped out of a Pelican without a parachute.

Lasky nudged Sarah who was already looking at the same person.

"He slipped in a minute or so before the presentation started, I already looked him up and he doesn't match any of our files. Strange, he reminds me of someone." She looked away quickly when she realized she was staring.

"Something tells me he shouldn't be here." Lasky's felt a wave of uneasiness.

"I'm sure he's just another lunatic doctor, that hasn't been out in public that much so he's has a fear of large masses of people." She joked and made her way towards the door.

"Yeah, I'm sure he is." He said doubtfully as he followed Sarah out the door.

**A/N: A very short chapter for you guys to give you some breathing space. I really appreciate all of you guys, I'm getting more and more views every day and I can't thank you guys enough. Please PM me if you would like any assistance with your story, or would like to give me your ideas for mine. Thanks~ Review.**


	29. Team

Chief placed his helmet on with a light click, the orange visor tinting his view, something he was familiar with. He noticed Cortana's eyes were glazed over, staring off in the distance. At this, he immediately grabbed the Assault Rifle that was strapped to his side and held it in position. He knew she was thinking, and unless they were on a ship filled with Covenant and she was calculating attacks, he knew it was never good.

"Cortana," He mumbled quickly as he scanned his surroundings.

"Chief," She said with a mere whisper, like he wasn't even there.

"Cortana what's –"She snapped out of whatever trance she was in and her head jerked in his direction.

"Halsey, Halsey, and Chief she's –"She stuttered the words her eyes batting around the room.

He knew this was bad. The look on her face showed it. He felt like he just jumped out of a Pelican into a sea of flood.

"She wasn't with me, I don't know where she is…I scanned her files and, Palmer was ordered to assassinate her, and I don't know – I, I can't find her on the ships coordinates anywhere. She's in lockdown, they must have her and – "She was babbling words so fast that Chief was barely able to understand. But it was all he needed because he took off in a sprint down the hallway, Cortana followed.

oOoOoOoO

"Chief –"She felt out of breath as they ran to the other end of the long metal spaceship, Infinity. Chief stared straight ahead, focused. She knew he could run for miles without stopping. But he needed to know, or else this could be bad.

"Chief," She started again," You need to listen to me." He kept running, as they neared the hallway that led to the other wing of Infinity. Her heart was pounding in her chest, and she felt like someone was chocking the air out of her lungs.

He finally skidded to a stop and turned suddenly, making her halt quickly.

"This is going to be bait Chief." She said simply, hoping he would put the pieces together. She was too tired to explain.

"She needs help." He shifted his stance irritated, Cortana watched his annoyed expression through the visor.

"I'm warning you Chief, but you can't stop me – whatever happens."

"What do you mean?" He was paying attention now.

"Chief, please think. Think _really _hard about this." She pressed her lips together, she wanted to tell him. But he wouldn't believe her, or if anything he would deny it. She couldn't say it either, his home, the place he sacrificed his life to, everything to. It was too painful to admit that they were stabbing him just for their own purposes.

She could feel the waves of discomfort radiating off of him. He was silent, and just watching his sadden expression made her feel like she was shattering to pieces. She could see it now. Practically watch the glass ball break. The pieces floating through the air like feathers, but hitting the ground like grenades. The sun in his world was never real, the pain, the orders, the enemies, the emotions and all of it was just fake. Finally the real world was pouring in like sunlight in the darkness. It was more painful than the needles, the knives, broken bones. It hurt in her chest like nothing she had ever felt before, and she knew that it was a million times worse for him.

"Cortana, were running out of time, I need you to get a plan together and …"She raised her hand to stop him. "I can't Chief." She choked out the words like something was caught in her throat.

"What do you mean?" He took a step forward, his expressions shifted between anger and worry.

"This isn't like your normal missions Chief. There's no Covenant flank to shoot, no flood to step on, no ships to invade. You can't plan any of this, I can't calculate and extraction plan or tell you how much time you have to get out of a detonated building. I can only do so much, I can help…but I can't grantee an answer. It's a guessing game." She looked at the floor, her arms felt heavy as they dropped to her side.

Chief stayed silent and lowered his Assault Rifle. He stayed frozen like this for a few seconds but to Cortana it felt like hours. Cortana released the breath she was holding and shifted her stance so she felt like she was still on the ground, because right now she felt invisible.

She sighed and walked over, placing her hand on the scratched armor. He seemed slightly startled by this, but otherwise barely moved.

"Chief look at me," He didn't have a reaction to her words.

"Look at me." She said a little harsher. He turned his head slightly, and that was enough for her.

"Even though the UNSC may seem like the enemy," She paused to collect her thoughts. "The one's you fight with, fought with, or will fight with, are good people, soldiers…family." The last word caused his to turn his head completely, full attention.

"Soldiers may be trained to fight, but they are also trained to be loyal, and to go down with their team."

"I've let so many down, I let my team down." His voice cut through the stale air. She knew exactly what he was talking about, she could think of a list of people that were flashing though his mind right now.

"No Chief. You never let anyone down, never broken a promise." She paused and let it sink in. Slowly, like his energy he raised his rifle.

"Plus you're underestimating me Chief. Really, you've been deprived of my awesomeness." She stuck her chin up in the air and crossed her arms.

He laughed lightly as this. Like pushing through mud the weight was slowly lifting off his chest.

"2 eggheads, 4 officers heading off left side of infinity near room 152, they are turning off into the east wing. There's an elevator there, I've already overridden it. It should stall us some time." She talked as she pulled up a blue hard light panel. There heading to the "basement" of infinity, it requires High Com. Access. "

He opened his mouth to say something but she kept talking.

"I've taken care of that to I also scrambled some files so they can't find a few things. More time – and the tech that was supposed to deliver the hardcopy files, well he's been stalled." She rambled off words as she swiped around the screen, her heart pumping. It felt natural, finally something that felt normal.

"If we run now without getting stopped by some ONI Officers then we should get there in exactly 4 minutes 22.5 seconds. We have 15 seconds before we have to book it, take your guns off safety, you may need it. Any questions?

"Will there be a test?" She could see the smirk he was holding back behind his orange visor.

"Yeah, how fast can you run?" With that they took off down the hall, and for the first time actually could see the dull light at the end of the gruesome, bloody, ass kicking tunnel.


	30. Soldier

Chief ran pretty fast.

But Cortana already knew that, right down to the last step. When they reached the metal doors they quietly took out two guards in sync, but didn't kill them. Cortana was learning since her duration with the Didact that for the first time she got cold feet when it came to putting a bullet through someone's head. But according to Chief, that was completely normal.

_Child of my enemy, why have you come? I offer no forgiveness. A fathers sins passed to his son._

"Cortana," Chief's voice cut through the whispers in her head. "Are you okay?" He turned toward her with a nervous expression.

"I'm fine really," She said with uneasiness. He didn't say anything just continued to stare.

"Cortana," He took a step closer and crossed his arms, Assault Rifle still in hand. It reminded her when they crashed with the remains of the dawn.

"ONI Officer, 17 seconds out. Chief I need you to rip that panel out of the wall." She looked away and shoved the question out of the conversation. She didn't want to talk about it, it wasn't the time.

He stalled for a few seconds before ripping out the panel like it was a light bulb. Cortana touched it and watched as it dissipated into hard light, she felt the energy at her fingertips, the surface smooth and alive. She typed in a few hacks and watched with satisfaction as the airlock of the door popped. Chief was already a few meters down the hall lowering the other ONI officer that Cortana detected a few seconds ago to the floor.

Chief was back in front of the door in a few strides and stood eagerly waiting for Cortana to give the signal. But Cortana felt her breath catch she knew that they were wasting valuable time. Soon, officers will be swarming her at the unauthorized door hack. But that wasn't what Cortana feared it was what was on the other side of the door.

_This is what you are born to do, Reclaimer._

The words were like little knives and she couldn't stop herself as her arm reached up and touched her sweaty forehead. Chief took a small step toward her, but Cortana looked away and waved her hand.

"The door Chief, we need to do this now."

"Cortana, you're not telling me something."

_You are the combination of a thousand lifetimes of planning._

"Chief now," She said a little harsher as she continued to hold her head. Chief swung his fist and punched the door down, and she knew half of that was anger from her stubbornness.

The light from the hallway poured into the dark room reveling those it held.

Cortana felt dizzy, she knew it was going to be bad. Chief took a step back, but kept his gun in position, and she knew well he wanted to shoot the murder.

But it was a hostile situation, and you have to stay calm.

Ryan Miller, complete in armor stood in the shadows in the back of the room with a shotgun pressed against Dr. Halsey's temple.

Keeping his gun in the same direction he took a few steps towards Chief and Cortana.

"Are you always right Cortana?" He said with a laugh.

"Don't move or I'll shoot you." Chief said holding his ground like a statue.

"Will you guardian?" Ryan in the blink of an eye pulled out a second gun and aimed at Cortana.

Cortana drew her almost-out-of-ammo shotgun from the hook on her belt and pointed it at Ryan.

Halsey was pressed against the corner, her arms chained and eyes shut.

Chief glanced nervously at Cortana and silence filled the room before Chief asked the question we all wanted to hear an answer to.

"How are you not dead," He grunted annoyed.

"You can blame her." He flicked the gun pointed at Cortana up and down.

Cortana could feel the heat bubbling up inside of her and for the first time wondered if her returning was a burden.

"Her DNA, is the most powerful thing I've ever encountered, and now…It's a part of me." Cortana felt a shiver go down her spine.

"I am immortal." He said with triumph.

"But…how, we destroyed everyone with my DNA, including the Didact." She shook her head, and almost didn't want to hear the answer.

"Let me ask you, AI. If everyone with your DNA was destroyed, how come you weren't?" A cold smile was creeping up his face behind the blue visor.

"No…no," Cortana's voice was hoarse, and her finger was itching on the trigger, but if she killed him…

"Chief", Cortana said trying to push the words out throat. "Don't shoot, don't…don't."

"Cortana what do you mean…?" He suddenly felt vulnerable.

"Were linked," She slowly lowered her gun, her mouth feeling dry.

"Now," He clicked the safety off his gun and walked over to Halsey, "I think we can make a deal."

_Because the seeds of our future are sown in his past_

"You," Cortana said with awe, "you control the voices." She shook her head.

"I think you're underestimating me." Ryan said as she squeezed her eyes shut and gripped the gun that's still in her hand.

"What do you want," She kept her eyes shut wishing this would all be over.

"I'm sure you noticed that there are no ONI officers, Cortana."

"You're working with them?" Chief jumped in.

"Not at first, but I had a little meeting with Commander Osman, an intriguing person if I must say." He added quietly.

"ONI would sacrifice one of their soldiers for…money?" She spat out the words angry.

"When you're brainwashed, the system seems perfect. But when you're looking from the outside in, it's not so shiny is it, Spartan?" He laughed.

Chief shifted uncomfortable and Cortana noticed his eyes kept switched between the three of them in the room.

"What I want? Is to kill you, but that means I'd be dead." He sighed before continuing, "So instead, I don't kill Halsey, she gets released and she can continue being a rat in her little lab – with all her charges dropped." He paused and let the barter sink in.

"What's in it for you?" Chief took a few steps closer, partially blocking Cortana.

"Her. She comes with me and ONI's custody, and we'll leave this ship and return to the headquarters and you can return shooting heads off of screaming grunts." He walked a few steps closer to Cortana.

"Like a family reunion Cortana, bloods thicker than water right?" He smiled.

She wanted to puke.

"If you don't," He spun around and fired his gun, the bullet landing right next to Halsey's head. Cortana heard Halsey let out a quiet shaky sob.

Cortana turned around to face Chief, her eyes sad. "Chief –"But Chief cut her off.

"No! You've already been through way too much, you can't go. You can't, please, just." He was rambling something that was out of characteristic for him.

She reached up and touched his chest plate.

"Our duty, as soldiers is to protect humanity, whatever the cost. This is my duty Chief, something I have to do until the battles over."

"Cortana…Please," He looked away and it painfully reminded her of the composer.

"They can't kill me Chief. I'll be okay…You can work with Lasky. We can figure this out."

"It's not fair. This isn't fair." He shook his head, his throat starting to feel swollen.

"I have a feeling, this is it. This is the last battle I'll have to fight. It will be over soon." She nodded and tried to hold back all the emotions that threatened to take over. "Promise me, you won't blow up another planet?" She tried to lighten the mood that weighed down the room.

"I promise." He said wishing there was a way out of this, he hated these situations. It reminded him of when Sam had sacrificed himself in the beginning of the Human-Covenant war, when he had no other options.

Cortana took her hand off of the worn armor and shoved her gun back into her belt and walked over to Ryan.

"I'm a soldier now, and I'll do whatever it takes."

**A/N: Hey awesome people of the universe! I forgot to write an authors note in the last chapter, but as usual. THANK YOU! I checked the view count for the first time in a while and over 13,000 people have read my story - yeah okay so for a first time FanFiction writer it's a really big deal to me and I can't thank you enough for your reviews and the suggestions I've been getting. Please continue reviewing and someday I'll get around to fixing my many mistakes, but as Cortana would say - nobody's perfect. **


	31. Pain

_Shit. Shit. Shit._

That was all that went through her head as she walked down the long florescent lite hall way with two ONI officers. She was pissed, actually that was an understatement – she was furious. If it wasn't for the restraints that held her wrists together then she'd rip off their heads and feed them to the grunts. She turned her head as Chief and Halsey, as promised, stood freely in the doorway. Chief had his arms crossed while Halsey looked towards the floor as a med-tech sterilized her wounds. As she walked farther away they got smaller and smaller, even with her advanced vision. Right as they turned the corner and Cortana was about to look away she watched as Chief took off down another hall way. Silently she traced his routine and knew where he was heading. Apparently, so did Ryan.

"Left wing, 144 kilometers - He's going to try into intersect us. Get 5 guards, you're going to need that many." He said with ease.

_How did he already adapt the AI abilities?_

The thought made her head hurt, so she started to think. Can I still get messages to Chiefs helmet?

_Chief, can you hear me?_

Nothing – she squeezed her eyes shut and tried to focus her mind, consume the energy – control the energy. Find the pathways, breath, translate the symbols, and find the system, code, breath.

_Chief, can you hear me? _She mentally thought again.

_Cortana? _Chief responded with uncertainty.

_It worked. _She sighed in relief and noticed Ryan was watching her intently.

_Are you okay? _If she focused she could practically hear him running, the metal clanking down the hallways without even trying.

_Fine, but what the hell are you doing? _She sounded more irritated then she intended.

_I don't make plans, I just run. _He said jokingly, she tracked him again and he was about to intervene with the guards.

_Chief, stop their sending people after you. _

_How do you know that?_

_Really - Chief _She knew that he was stalling.

_Chief, you'll get arrested you need to stay behind and protect Halsey._ She added and knew he was slowing down as she watched his heart rate decrease on his bio readings.

_It's not worth it. Stay, please. _

_This isn't right Cortana… I can get on the ship without them knowing._

As tempting as it was, she knew that it would only lead to bad things. More people would get hurt, and he had to watch Halsey.

_We can't fight this Chief it has to run its course. _

_They said the same about the Didact and look where that got us?_

She quickly scanned the guards to see if there is any threat, because despite her efforts, he wasn't going to listen. He could take them down, but that's exactly what she worried about. She wanted him to stop, to stay, because if he does anything they could replace Halsey's execution charge.

Suddenly she jolted to a stop as the guards pulled her back and Ryan grabbed her by the neck. She could feel his gloved hand lifting her off the ground, choking the air out of her lungs. She could feel her blood pumping to her head, her vision getting spotty.

"Stop communicating. Or I'll break your neck."

"Go ahead – they'll need two graves." She pushed the words through her collapsing throat.

She pulled her legs up and with a powerful, painful, kick she landed her boots in his chest plate. He released her and she scrambled to get air in her lungs as she pushed herself off the floor and grabbed her knife that was imbedded in a pocket of her boot.

She knew that she couldn't kill him, but maybe she could slow him down.

Then what Cortana?

Reinforcements would come, and kill him. Which meant that would kill her.

Would they even come?

She shoved the knife back in her boot and took off down the hall with inhuman speed. As she feared, Ryan was just as fast. She could practically feel his boots on her heels as he reached out for her arm. Unexpected, she heard a clashing of armor as Chief collided with Ryan and both of them slammed into a wall. Chief had him in a headlock, a fresh dent in his shoulder plate. As Ryan struggled to break free, he was thrashing like pray. Cortana walked over and again took out her knife.

The two guards finally caught up, and this time she didn't get cold feet. They took out there weapons and started to shoot, she dodged each fire as she approached closer to them.

"Chief, don't kill him." She spoke, out of breath, as she reached the guards.

"I wish I could." Chief responded Ryan continued to fight, and a few times Chief lost his grip.

"Don't kill her you idiots!" He yelled to the guards. But as expected they cared more about their own livelihood then Ryan's.

She thought of a crappy idea, and she knew it would suck. She took off into a sudden sprint and knifed one of the guards, instantly he fell to the floor. The other guard hesitated before shooting another plasma ray towards her. She purposely lifted her arm in its path and felt the searing pain melt away the first 2 to 3 layers of her skin as it tore through her combat suit.

She screamed loudly, and so did Ryan. She turned away holding her arm, but threw her knife as hard as she could directly at the guard. The knife pieced through his neck, plunged all the way through. The tip of the handle of the knife imbedded in his neck, and Cortana believed that the blade may be stuck in the wall.

She felt weak in the knees, stumbling forward holding her arm, she might puke. As she predicted, certain things that happen to one's body, happens to another. Chief had Ryan pinned on the wall and she could hear him taking shaky breaths, his arms shaking.

_Why didn't he feel pain when he was trying to choke me?_

She walked over, her head pounding. Chief turned towards her continuing to hold Ryan in his place. Chief watched her quietly as she reached for the combat knife hooked on his armor.

"Cortana…" He said in low tone.

She grabbed Ryan's arm tightly, and made the effort to pull extra hard so he felt more pain. She then proceeded to use the knife and pry off the paneling. She used her opposite hand, and let her left burned arm dangle feeling blood drip off her fingertips. Once she had the paneling off she was stunned. The black suit that was under the armor was burned, like hers, and the skin beneath it full of blood and damaged skin. She then, with a shaky hand took the knife and pressed it into his skin, he grunted loudly and thrashed harder, she felt the pain, and it was unbearable. She pulled the knife away and blinked the tears away that stung her eyes.

"Cortana stop." Chief's voice said angrily.

"Punch him." She said taking in a shaky breath.

"Cortana I'm not hurting…" She cut him off.

"Just do it!" She yelled.

He hesitated, but pulled back his opposite arm and punched him in the chest. Ryan coughed, the wind knocked out of him. But she felt nothing.

"It's blood contact." She concluded. "Only when there's blood involved." She nodded dazed as Chief let Ryan drop to the floor, blood staining the white tiles.

She bent down, and ripped off Ryan's helmet reveling his pale face and glowing eyes – it made her shiver. He had bruises and cuts like he was pushed off a cliff. She leaned in closer, feeling his disgusting breath on her face.

"I am the monument to all your sins." She whispered before kicked hard into his left temple, causing him to go unconscious.


	32. Honor

_We run through the fire of our sins,_

_Crashing from society._

_Our souls hang on a thin string,_

_Controlled by a puppet master._

_Take us home._

_Let us breathe for the first time._

_Take us home._

_Our bloody hands will be washed in the forgiving water._

_Take us home._

_With the ones we fight the hardest with._

_If rejected by home so will my soul._

_Honor plated in gold,_

_Honor Covered in Blood._

_What have I done?_

_Who's honor have I taken?_

_Let me go._

_You can forgive, but never forget._

_And what will you call me when you learn the truth of what I have done?_

It didn't take long before lines of people, reporters, soldiers, high command, medical staff and basically everyone else in the tin can we call home stood in front one bloody Human-AI, unconscious AI/Human ONI Agent, the questionable human savor, and two dead limp ONI agents.

Dead silence filled the room.

_Cortana? _She was startled at the voice that filled her head by a very familiar voice.

_Yes Chief. _She responded mentally, while she continued to stand unmoving.

_How many people are in this room? _Chief stood motionless next to her, to the quiet audience they heard nothing – but Cortana could hear the fear in his voice that almost made her let out a shaky laugh.

_Only 122 _She replied with her answer which only took half a nanosecond to calculate.

_Are you okay? _She asked the statue-Spartan who she picked up quickly had a fear of large non-Covenant audience's.

He didn't respond as a startling clapping noise erupted from the back of the crowd.

_"_Commander on deck," One of the younger voices from the audience shouted. Immediately everyone turned sideways and cleared a path for the commander, saluting. Reporters moved awkwardly to the side to avoid being crushed by heavy combat boots.

The Commander, like putting out a path of fire, walked through the path made for her with ease. Every step echoed around the silent hallways with the clanking of her cleaned armor. Cortana finally shifted out of her frozen stance like the ice finally melted around her.

"You are not a soldier." Commander Osman spoke first cutting the silence that filled the room into pieces.

"You are equipment, UNSC junk. That should have been deactivated years ago."

Cortana couldn't think - she might as well be suffocated.

"You do not deserve the breath that fills your lungs, you are the poorest excuse for a UNSC soldier that I have every encountered. I would, in a heartbeat, replace you with anything. You make a mess of the system - you are the kind of people that should be locked up at Earth. "

More silence. Osman took a step in front of her, a few feet between them.

"The hunger for the information you hold is not worth the risk of collapsing the system. You are not meant to be here, like a fragment in time – a mistake." She hissed the words.

_Cortana don't listen to her. _Chief spoke in her head, astonishment and sympathy filled his voice.

"Have you ever asked me?" She whispered, tears pricking at the corners of her eyes.

Commander Osman stood silent.

"Have you ever asked about the pain, the blood, the sacrifice, the control, the DNA, the Didact, the voices that fill my mind, the frustration, the terror, the loss and the confusion? Have you ever woken up not knowing where you were, or have you ever been imprisoned by the Gravemind? Have you ever fought versions of yourself, your mind deteriorating like knifes tearing at your soul, left on a ship for more the 4 years with nothing to do but let yourself die in hope for a rescue? Have you ever been experimented on like a toy, or watch innocent people burn to death? Do you know every name of those who had died fighting for a place we call home, the UNSC?" Her voice grew louder with every word. Osman lifted her gun and pressed it to Cortana's chest, Cortana didn't move. Chief motioned to move but Cortana shoved her hand out, stopping him.

"Well I do. I know every one of them, their files, their families and how many kids they have. I've seen the letters that were sent home to those kids about their parent's death, I've seen them cry to the point where they can't breathe. All of this, I know and I can recall it all in a millisecond."

She paused for a second, and realized she was screaming – tears flowing down her cheeks.

"This man," She pointed towards Chief, "you should all be saluting to, without him, you wouldn't be standing here Commander, and everything I live through every – painful- millisecond would become your reality. So shoot me now. Shoot me and burn my file, make me non-existent. You can do everything in your power, but you can't change history. Someone will always remember the ones who are worth remembering." Her throat felt raw, as if time stopped nobody moved.

Suddenly a young girl, around seventeen with a shaved head, lifted her arm slowly in a salute. Deliberately, everyone else followed until the entire room was standing at attention, some tears with in their eyes. Commander Osman lowered her gun, and Cortana took a shaky breath. She placed her gun back in her holster, and stared at Cortana for what felt like a century. Cortana saw pain in them to, confusion and anger.

They broke eye contact as Osman spun on her heels and walked down the hall with silence.

"Get back to your stations!" Spoke a familiar voice, the crowd slowly dissipated a few silently talking, some wiping their eyes, others with shocked expressions. Two UNSC Med-Techs walked over with gloves and picked up Ryan onto a stretched platform.

"Put him in a cryo-pod, nobody has access to him unless they go through me. Do not – treat his wounds." Spoke the same voice that broke up the crowd, the voice was Sarah Palmer who walked towards Cortana followed by Lasky. The four of them watched silently as the unconscious agent got carried away.

A minute passed of silence until Sarah spoke quietly "Let's get you cleaned up Cortana, and you Chief need to get your armor repaired. You look like you got hit by a Pelican then thrown against a wall." She smirked and attempted to lighten the mood.

"I was." He mumbled with a light laugh.

Cortana hesitated as Palmer motioned for her to follow her down the hall. Palmer realized this and stopped.

"I'm not talking to you as your commander…I'm talking to you like a friend." She said with rare softness. Lasky looked surprised at this but quickly covered it.

Cortana gave a small smile and followed Palmer down the hallway leaving Chief and Lasky alone.

"Incredible isn't it?" He asked while turning to Chief.

"Sir?" Chief replied confused.

"Sometimes it only takes one person, to change someone's perspective - If you can change a group of people, why not the world?" Lasky clasped his hands behind his back.

"These wars are built off of perspective, and opinions. Something that once seemed impossible becomes possible, like Cortana for instance." He added. "People just want to understand things, and Cortana is something people have to accept. Accept that all questions may not be answered. You know, Osman wasn't always this way. But because she has to consider other opinions, it consumed her." He took a deep breath.

"When the Spartan II Program was created, even though it was silent, those who knew thought it was ridiculous, and impossible. Those who fear the impossible try to stop it. The same way they try to kill Halsey, and Cortana they are the new impossible."

Chief's shoulders relaxed, and oddly felt comforted by the words.

"Thank You Sir." He meant it, and finally felt a small weight get lifted off his shoulders. Perhaps, the system wasn't as corrupted as he thought. Many are good people.

"Go get some rest Chief, you need it." He nodded and began to slowly walk away.

"Where is –"Lasky cut him off.

"Go to your old room, she'll be in the quarters next door. I had it planned for you earlier before all this happened…"

"Thank You." Chief spoke sincerely.

He nodded as he walked down the hall way, Chief started walking towards what used to be his old quarters. During their conversation Chief didn't even notice the blood was being wiped off the floors by cleaning crews, including the two agents who tried to kill them earlier.

Words spread like fire and he had no doubt Cortana's speech were already broadcasted on every media device possible in the universe.

But he didn't care.

Because she was completely right, and he just wanted to deal with that disaster in the morning – even though he rarely needed it, he desperately wanted sleep.

He finally reached his old room, after ignoring every soul that passed him in the hallway. He motioned for the door that supposedly Cortana was in and for some reason took a few seconds to try to remember who was there before. Michael…Mickey..? He couldn't remember…

Cortana would.

He never thought of how much she actually knew – it must be a gift and a burden. He shook his head of the sidetracking thoughts and placed his hand on the knob, knocking before opening. Cortana opened the door and Chief was immersed in the typical gray rooms with barely any space. He studied Cortana, who for the first time seemed slightly relaxed. She was wearing the standard UNSC grey clothing. It looked like some sort of topical was placed on her arm for the burn, along with a few stiches. Her hair was wet, her eyes had dark circles.

"You know," She broke the awkward silence between them, "Roland told me a funny story when I got here earlier." She was holding down a laugh.

"Oh?" He said confused as he tried to think of something Roland would comment about him.

"That you were so stressed out before your meeting with Lasky that you crushed your room doorknob." She burst out laughing and leaned against the wall for support.

"He told you that?" Chief chuckled softly as Cortana regained her balance.

"Thank You." She said with a softer tone, the mood quickly changing in the room. "I realized that I never thanked you, for everything you've put yourself through these past weeks. I owe you." She looked towards the floor.

"You don't have to thank me, and you owe me nothing. I could never repay you for the things you've done…" His voice trailed off, he wasn't good with words. She however, could probably think of a billion in 15 different languages.

"Halsey is okay by the way." She added silently. When you took off down the hallway, Roland helped her lock herself in a room. Sarah and I retrieved her and she's in a safe place." She smiled.

Chief almost forgot, and he hated himself for forgetting.

"It's okay Chief, we all forget stuff." She walked over and placed her hand on his arm gently, "You have too much on your mind, and according to your bio readings your seriously sleep deprived." She added.

A strange emotion washed over him…comfort, anxiety…was this happiness? Suddenly he felt the armor on his shoulders become heavy and for the first time wished the armor was off, the helmet suddenly felt suffocating.

As if reading his thoughts Cortana spoke up, "Go get your armor repaired and get some sleep." She smiled and slowly turned around. Chief, without thinking, grabbed her hand. She turned around confused, but with a smile. Chief squeezed her hand, and for a second they let the wave of relief wash over them. He let go, and walked through towards the door.

"Chief, don't worry about me. I've got a loaded Assault Rifle under my pillow." She joked. He smiled and closed the door softly behind him. As he walked to the armor deck he glanced at his own door knob. It was still crushed just the way he left it.

_You can do everything in your power, but you can't change history._

Your right Cortana and I wouldn't change a thing.

**A/N: So I haven't posted an author's note in a while…So hi! Thank you again for all the reviews and PM's they mean a lot to me. So this seems like a good wrap up…But…It's not the end. I'm excited to be throwing in new – story – but – not – new – to – you halo characters. But in the characters defense, you have to admit they need some R &amp; R so I thought this chapter was appropriate. Please as always review I love to hear your feedback! Thanks!**


	33. Always

She sat up so fast it made her head spin. She was shaking and felt as if she couldn't breathe. Her vision was hazy as she tapped her hand on her nightstand until she found the plastic bottle she had been searching for. She held the orange bottle in her hand, the list of its contents stuck along the sides. She knew every single one of them, its origins, the side effects, and the mixture of chemicals. But what was more important than any of those things was what the colorful drugs did.

At first she denied taking medications – especially when Halsey gave her access to the medical library. In seconds she learned so many things she had to quickly download the file and place it on standby so she didn't have the tendency to read it. Of course the medical world and its mysteries was intriguing to her. Halsey once told her that hundreds of years ago doctors actually infused radiation into patient bodies to fight a disease known as cancer.

But Cortana's medications were different. She regretted having a medical exam, because apparently she was filled with issues. Of course Cortana knew all this but the pain was tolerable and she wasn't really concerned about any of it. She had infections, fractured bones, strained muscles and joints, a punctured lung, and her ACL was mildly torn. They also were concerned with the stability with her mind.

_Ha._

They put her on anti-depressants, pain killers, and multiple different 'mind slowing' drugs – in simple terms. Of course, as she predicted the medications became addicting, and something she relied on. She started to pick up on the fact that the medications calmed her down, and made her drowsy. These emotions were new to her, something she wasn't used to. To feel her mind slowing down – and the ability to sleep was addicting all in itself. As much as she felt the drugs limited her mind, after horrible nightmares she doesn't mind swallowing a few and pushing herself through the day.

Of course Chief wasn't happy with this. He insisted that he would have full access to all her medical records and have full consent with any experimental procedures. Lasky was able to clear new paperwork just for her – she was protected and only she could agree to any experiments. To the labs surprise, she actually agreed to a lot of these procedures. Of course, Cortana knew when to draw the line just so they didn't learn too much.

The medical branch treated Cortana like the prodigy of Dr. Halsey. She started to pick up they all worshipped Halsey secretly regardless of ONI's anger and the idea of having a second Halsey around made them excited and welcoming. They imminently gave her full clearance on everything. She was even given a schedule which consisted of teaching courses and high level labs. She at first was uneasy about teaching the new trainees, but grew to love it. The new eggheads, unlike her Spartan companion, asked many questions that she was able to answer in seconds. There were also times were they begged her to tell a few stories – and she had many of them.

She placed the bottle under her pillow – because it was against the law to have prescribed medication in the private sleeping rooms. Of course she didn't care. She opened the cabinet and was surprised to find different clothing then the standard everyday uniforms.

The thick fabric was white. The neck and sleeves aligned in black and gold. The hat slightly puffed out had a gold rim the chest covered in badges and patches. She reached out and ran her fingers down the arms, laughing at herself at how surprisingly happy she was. Roland appeared on the panel, his arms clasped behind his back.

"Good morning, Ma'am. Sorry to interrupt, but I just wanted to inform you of the ceremony today."

"Why wasn't I earlier informed of this?" She scanned her mind to remember if she had just forgotten.

"You didn't forget Ma'am," Roland added as if he read her mind, "We don't usually tell many people."

"Why is that?" She raised her eyebrow.

"It stresses some of the soldiers out." He said rolling his eyes.

She laughed lightly and suddenly felt as if someone dropped a rock in her stomach.

"Don't worry it's like ripping out a needle from a needler out of your arm." He added laughing.

"That's not comforting." She rolled her eyes. Ripping out a needle was like ripping out barbed wire then having the burning after effect that lasted hours.

She opened her mouth to ask another question when Roland once again spoke for her.

"He doesn't know. The uniform isn't in his room. Open the bottom draw."

"Why is that?" She turned around and opened the draw that as Roland gestured to, finding it had a perfected folded uniform in it. She picked it up and turned around to face Roland again.

"Like I said, it stressed some of the soldiers out. By soldiers I mean Spartans." He smirked.

She knew this. John hated these things. But he had a right to - nothing good came out of them. Everything was a painful memory. It reminded him of the death of his team mates or commanders.

"Good luck." Roland nodded and flickered out.

"Great." She mumbled and proceeded to get changed. The uniform fit perfectly, she stared in the mirror for a few minutes and noticed her hair was actually getting a bit long. It was much longer then the policy restrictions. She decided she would deal with it later. Looking down at her clothing painfully reminded her back when she was in the underground facility and was given the combat uniform.

She shivered at the thought and continued towards the door with Chiefs uniform.

She walked a few strides and knocked on Chiefs door. She already knew he was in there. She scanned everything before she did anything. She opened the door slowly and glanced around his room. Chief was sitting on his bed, tablet in his lap, holding his head.

He looked up, and gestured sluggishly for her to enter the room. She could tell he was overly tired. She noted he was having a hard time sleeping. She blamed herself partly, the first few nights she would wake up screaming and forgetting where she was, panicking and practically having a meltdown. He would have to run in and calm her down, tell her she was alright. Ironically, some nights she would have to do the same. Neither of them received sleep, or planned on getting any anytime soon.

He starred at her for a moment. She read each of his facial expressions, even though only a few could. Surprise, awe, confusion, realization, dread – in that order.

"Award ceremony?" He asked halfheartedly already knowing the answer.

She sighed and placed the folded clothing on his bed. "No, we are being deployed to earth for a vacation for a couple of weeks so we can in honor of Johnson, drink our depression away."

Chief looked at her trying to hold back a smile. "Really?" He said slightly hopeful.

"No, but I heard they are actually shortening the speech by a whole 2 minutes and 5 seconds."

"You heard?" He tilted his head and gave her a disproving look.

"Okay…I read…But in my defense the files may as well as been right in front of me, barely any protection barriers."

He laughed and stood up wiping away the dark circles under his eyes.

"No sleep?" She stated sympathetically understanding the pain.

Trying to lighten the mood she added, "I understand why you humans get so cranky. Before I didn't realize how much sleep can affect you, it's kind of a pain in the ass." She shook her head.

"I would agree but my argument would be one sided. I've never experienced the never-needing-sleep or energy state of mind or body." He pointed out clearly proud of his comeback.

Cortana snorted "I'll let you know when the opportunity comes around. Sorry, you missed the last one." She turned around and motioned to open the door.

"Cortana," she stopped in her tracks and turned around. "Meet me at left wing. Halsey wants us."

"About…?" She lifted an eyebrow.

"She didn't say, but I don't think it's anything serious." He stated half believing it.

"Chief, when it involves both of us, it's nothing but serious." She joked and proceeded again towards the door.

He sighed as she shut the door behind her.

oOoOoOoO

She stood stiffly against the wall, mostly because she wanted to look more awake. Her eye's slowly drifted shut, just for a few seconds or maybe longer…

"Cortana," Her eyes immediately snapped back open and she stood at attention. Suddenly, she relaxed realizing it was John. His uniform looked like it was made of glass he was so stiff he looked like a statue. It reminded her of when he was around the last set of camera's with Johnson – expect this time he isn't hiding in his suit.

"You look nice." She smiled. Suddenly a stab of memory washed in like a tide, she quickly shoved the thought away.

"Thanks." He said looking to the floor remembering the same thing. "Please tell me you can get in my armory deck?" He had a desperate looked across his face.

She sighed before pushing off the wall and walking over to him, even without the suit he was at least six inches taller. "It's still under repairs. Halsey knows you… she knows you would want the suit for today. She locked it so tight it would take me days to just get past the first mass of fire walls." She stepped closer and fixed his collar and sleeves, something he just couldn't seem to master no matter how many times she bickered at him for it. "Besides, I'm sure the cameras would prefer to see your face."

"That's what I'm afraid of." He continued to watch her intensely. She finished straightening his badges before stepping back and tried to hold back the smile on her face.

"You're enjoying this aren't you?" He lifted his eyebrow.

"How many times do I get to see you so dreadfully uncomfortable?" She laughed.

Chief opened his mouth to make a comeback but Halsey was walking down the hallway. She always seemed to have this confidence in her stride, as if she could explode any human with her mind.

"There you are - your five minutes late." She rushed over hurriedly tablet in hand.

"I thought we were…" Cortana started to speak when Halsey cut her off.

"John. Stop stalling. These are important things that need to be done or else you'll have a bunch of officers and commanders breathing down your neck with questions." She spoke as if a mother would. She was the only woman in this universe that could make John look beneath her, even if it was just for a few seconds.

"Sorry, Ma'am," He was looking at the floor to avoid Halsey's disapproving features.

She turned her attention towards Cortana.

Sighing she reached out her hands and took Cortana's, "I never imagined my work from nine years ago would turn into this strong soldier, you've made me very proud." Pride danced around in Halsey's eyes.

"Both of you make an undefeatable team. I cannot think of anyone better to accompany the other with. Both of you show strengths in the qualities the other lacks. You both have strength and bravery that makes your courage strong and determined." Halsey shook her head with a smile; Cortana noticed the increase in tear duct productivities and knew she was on the verge of crying.

Something was wrong.

As much as Halsey had softened over the past few months, especially since they returned from the mission this was different from her. Most commanders on award day either were beaming with pride or stressed from the added pressure of international audience. But Halsey sounded like she was on her death bed.

John didn't really pick up on this and went along with it. Cortana noticed he was feeling comforted by her words. She pushed the thought aside and decided she was overthinking it, a usual for her.

"Cortana, I sent a list of notes I took from the last meeting –" John cut her off.

"That was a confidential meeting that only selective members of the UNSC could attend, even Cortana and myself were not invited."

Halsey continued, "I know. Cortana I want you to read those notes _carefully _for precautionary measures. A heads up for something you two may be deployed on." She whispered the sentence and Cortana nodded curiosity stretched along her features.

"Here we go." John rolled his eyes and mumbled the words.

"Now," Halsey clapped her hands together, "Enough talk, it's time for the ceremony." She gave a fake humorous smile before turning on her heels. In sync Cortana and Chief both groaned at the idea and practically dragged their feet as they followed Halsey down the long florescent hallway.

"Chief," she leaned in and whispered quietly as they walked down through the tunnels of Infinity avoiding eye contact with others.

"Yes?" He looked at her skeptically.

"I have a bad feeling about this." She continued to whisper constantly doing scans in the background of her mind. "It's not just the paranoia this time I swear…" She added reading his thoughts.

"I know. Something is going to happen…" His voice trailed off at the thought.

"We'll get through it, no matter what it is." She reassured softly while millions of ideas of what awaited them flashed through her mind.

"We always do."

**A/N: The team is off again. I'm going to be adding a lot of Halo Universe diversity to this next part of the story. I was going to make this a separate story, but I wanted to give those the opportunity of those who haven't read the story to start from chapter one. Thanks for the reviews, they make my day. Happy holidays to you all! I can't wait to start updating regularly again! **


	34. Cause

Chief had encountered plenty of things in his time of service: dealing with every form of Covenant, the Forerunners, and the Flood. He had faced the Didact, on more than one occasion, and the Gravemind. He had blown up every form of structure and vehicle known to the UNSC- including a planet and a Halo ring. He has had almost every wound, physically and mentally. Most people viewed him as a robot, a machine, a statue. The only people able to see through his solid form was Cortana and what he considered his family, his Spartan 'brothers and sisters', maybe even Dr. Halsey.

But that list was short. To the rest of the 10 trillion life forms he was the humanity-saving-machine, his reputation and accomplishments were known to most, unless highly classified. Chief never pondered this before that the things kept quiet were not meant to be heard about the public. More than once he wondered if the UNSC had been corrupt and covering things that were…inhuman. He was an example of this, and so was Cortana.

But on top of all of this, if there was anything in this entire universe that made him more traumatized it was the idea of cameras watching his every move, and everything he says.

"Chief," Cortana grabbed his arm to avoid him from slamming into a doorway. He shook his head and blinked a few times, remembering where he was.

"Chief look at me," Cortana continued to hold his arm tightly. It was strange there wasn't a layer of gel material and armor blocking him from any contact. He realized how tight her grip was, and even the warmth coming off of her skin. He could even feel her heartbeat through her fingertips…

He jolted his head up to break him from his continuous thoughts, Cortana held her expression, it was stern and sympathetic. He didn't say anything; he didn't have to Cortana knew he was listening.

"It doesn't matter you know, none of this. It's just for show…a way for the UNSC to wave there medals around to make themselves look good so they keep getting money and funding to buy overpriced machines and for that fancy armor of yours." She paused, he finally looked at her.

"All that matters is that you know who you are, and nothing these political hungry bastards think is going to change that. Even though you may not get all the recognition and respect you deserve, just know that you've impacted more people than you think Chief.

He had never really thought about it either, what he does, how it effects everything.

"I don't need any of that anyways," He relaxed his shoulders feeling comforted by the words, and a little less horrified. "I have everything I need." He looked at Cortana and they didn't speak for what felt like hours. But he meant it. He didn't need anything else. Halsey was alive, and so was the rest of his 'family' including Cortana.

Cortana smiled and let go of his arm. "Come on Chief, let's go for a ride."

He laughed at that, and didn't bother to hold back a smile.

"Now, getting to the important stuff," She turned on her heels and faced him crossing her arms.

"How should we make an entrance? I was thinking something along the lines of riding a pink banshee in the room with some of the music they use in the weight rooms, or maybe I can take a few seconds to hack the lighting system and make all the lights go out and you walk in and receive a spot light." She was smiling but what startled Chief was the seriousness in her eyes.

"Because the last thing I would want is a spotlight." He continued to laugh, something rare for him.

She faced the door and Chief followed as they stared at its grey features.

"On three?" She turned toward Chief who was sinking back into his thoughts.

"Just promise me there will be no pink banshees or spotlights?"

"I promise," her voice was genuine but she still had this excited look in her eyes.

_She was looking forward to this._

On three she pushed the doors open Chief took breath, and glanced at Cortana one last time before the crowd consumed them.

The room was filled with hundreds of filled seats, all of different kinds. White uniformed soldiers, reporters, civilians and high command. They were swarmed by cameras - hungry political monsters that were facing their attention towards Cortana.

Cortana held herself gracefully though, making small remarks, or ignoring them all together. Chief followed Cortana mind blank and nervous with all the cameras. She made her way over to reserved seats, and he was satisfied. They were against a wall in the corner.

"The best seats in the house," She joked as they seated and directed there attention towards the empty platform, that would be used as a stage.

He looked around, reading people's faces and marking all the exits. He glanced around looking for anyone with weapons or any weapons he could use in case something happened. He turned around stiffly and observed the people behind him, taking extra time to analyze the person sitting behind Cortana. When he concluded that there was nobody but soldiers and civilians in the room he turned back around and focused his gaze on the dog tag he held in his hand. He turned the thin worn silver plated tag in his hand, and wondered if he could get it re-engraved so his name didn't look so dull.

Cortana glanced around and pulled out her tablet, Chief watched her curiously. He examined her expressions, her eyes darting around at inhuman speed, her face suddenly sinking into worry.

"What?" Chief sat up straighter and started scanning the room as if a brute was about to jump out and tear them to pieces.

"Chief, we need to go, now." She tapped at her tablet quickly swiping the semi glass-hard light.

The lights dimmed signifying the ceremony was about to start.

"Cortana, what's wrong?" He was on the edge of his seat, ready to jump.

"I'll explain on the way there." She looked shaken up as if someone had thrown her off of a Pelican. He didn't ask any more questions, this is what he does, surprise situations.

They jumped up and slipped out the door, people noticed and started murmuring. To Chiefs surprise Cortana broke into a run down the hallway.

"Cortana," He easily kept up with her anxiety filling his head with every step.

"Remember Installation 04?" She continued to look forward as they meandered through the hallways.

"How can I forget?" He mumbled.

"Well, the notes Halsey gave me, that's what they were about, the effects of Installation 04."

"Why is this important now?" Chief asked as she turned a corner and halted at an elevator shaft.

"Because this whole ship is about to become infected," She jumped into the elevator and placed her thumb on the panel.

Chief imminently knew where they were heading.

"I don't understand." He meant it.

"When Installation 04 fired it shook itself to pieces. Most of it turned into dust but some of it blasted pieces at the speed of light years, so powerful that some pieces even passed through multiple galaxies. ONI discovered one of the rings pieces in our galaxy near the suns orbital. On that ring there was an unknown chemical that was created from the blast that selectively affects humans. They sent a team out to destroy it but out of the entire combined squads only two returned."

"Wouldn't it have been uninhabited?" Chief was trying to digest all the information.

"Yes, most of it was made of hard rock and ash. But there was a species known as Lekgolo, worms that were attracted to technical signals in the armor and other technology. With limited oxygen they had to power off everything, and there plane was attacked by Lekgolo. The only thing left was the tug plane. They had only a certain amount of hours because being so close to the sun it could reach up to 900 degrees at sunrise." She paused to take a breath as the elevator jolted to a stop and Cortana stepped out jogging.

"How does this have anything to do with the ship being infected?"

"I was scanning the mission and Halsey's notes and they had something related.

"What?" Cortana stopped in front of a door he knew well at this point and placed her hand on the scanner.

"Agent Locke."

**A/N: Hey everyone! Sorry if you read the previous post of this, but for some reason the program decided to throw out all the formatting so here it is, fixed. Thanks for everything! I just hit 80 reviews and for a first story it means a lot, I've put a lot of time and effort into this and although it maybe far from perfect I'm really proud of my work and thankful for my readers! Happy New Year everyone!**


	35. Effect

Chief didn't know what to say but his mouth went dry and his hands started to sweat. He suddenly felt venerable without his armor or any form of weaponry.

They stepped into the room and immediately Cortana slammed the door behind them, taking extra time to lock the hidden locks that only she knew about. Of course she knew they were in Halsey's lab. She pressed a button and the florescent lights turned on highlighting all the books, chemicals and flasks in the room. She ran into the center of the room towards the holographic table. She placed her hands quickly on the table to catch her balance, panic on her features.

Chief concluded that the situation was much worse than he originally presumed.

Cortana took a breath and started working her hands darting across the table until finally she pulled up a 3D hologram map of the rings fragment, including Halsey's notes and the mission file.

"Took longer than it should've, this mission file is protected." She sighed and reached up rotating the rings fragment for a better view.

"What do we need to do?" He started to look around formulating a plan in his head.

"Halsey left me some notes in her book, most of them about the meeting but it was a set up. She wanted us to come down here." She glanced at the map and the file before continuing Chief spoke up.

"Why couldn't she have alerted high command?" He crossed his arms shifting his stance.

"Because they would've thought she was crazy." Cortana quickly started typing.

"Explain everything you got, I need my armor."

"Already done," At that moment he heard a hissing of an airlock seal as the door he originally didn't see started to open. It was an armor deck and there like being severed on a silver platter was his dent free clean armor.

"She demanded that she would repair your armor and not the tech team." Cortana stated not looking up from the holograph table.

Chief walked over to the suit and motioned to step on the platform when Cortana stopped him.

"Chief," She sighed as she tossed him the under armor combat suit. The fabric felt thick in his hands, like an extra layer of skin. He was relieved to get the stiff white uniform off.

"I need to go get a sample." She said as she wondered off into the next room. Chief knew this was her excuse for leaving the room. He quickly changed and suddenly felt more at ease with his combat suit on. He stepped on the platform and let the machine do the rest of the work.

_Figure out which one of us is the machine…_

When his suit was on he stretched his arms and flexed his legs to adapt to the new weight on his shoulders. He jumped off the platform, the sound of his armor made his feel relaxed.

"I see she added some new things…" He noted some extra plates and linings on the armor including an updated HUD. Cortana watched him carefully as he made his way over to the holographic table.

"Pay attention. We don't have much time, I already sealed off a hangar for us in case we need it, and I set up everything in case we need to pull a lockdown." That alone got Chief worried - Infinity has only been in lockdown mode two times in its whole duration of service.

"I feel stupid for not doing this earlier, but turned out Agent Locke is more than we thought he is. He used to run a squad and work for ONI, moved his way up pretty quick. It wasn't until he and his father were captured that he became different." She paused to take a breath.

"Were still talking about the same psychopath that tried to murder both of us multiple times right?" He mumbled.

"He wasn't like that before Chief, or at least according to his files he was a good soldier, barely had a reputation, in fact he was highly respected. He must've been brainwashed Chief, by his own father." She shook her head.

"How do you know that?" He was seriously confused.

"His father worked in the medical branch for many years, but he was never recolonized. According to his shipment records he was always trying to build something – to impress the medical branch. But he always feel short, the results always soured. Until his son was deployed on that mission, that ring held the ingredient he needed – a substance found nowhere else in the universe." She paused an opened another panel.

"I found this transmission record between Agent Locke and his father while he was flying towards the rings fragment." Cortana pulled up the audio recording:

_"Locke, how far are you from the landing site." His voice sounded anxious. _

_"Not far, maybe 10 minutes out." He sounded tense._

_"I need a favor."_

_"This isn't exactly a time to ask for favors." Annoyance filled his voice._

_"Do it for your old man." The doctor grunted._

_"What." Locke was angry._

_"I need you to get a small sample of that substance."_

_"That is a dangerous chemical, where here to destroy it not study it." Locke stated angry._

_"Science is everything even the air you breathe. I expect it in my hands when you return." _

_"That would put innocent lives and my team at stake, I won't do it."_

_"I don't care about others' lives, I care about my work."_

_Transmission Disconnected._

Chief took a breath digesting the conversation.

"Basically, Agent Locke was forced by his father to get this lethal substance for his own research. Did he bring it back?"

"In a small flask, it was found in his combat boot according to this file." She opened the file Chief skimmed it and nodded.

"How does this connect with the Didact and working with him?"

"Remember they were originally captured? That was true however it was a set up. His father worked with the Didact and he would bring his son as a test subject in return for information on the composer. Agent Locke as a test subject lost almost all prior memory and was brainwashed. All his pain and anger emotions targeted towards you, so he would view you as an enemy." Cortana looked like she was spacing out, remembering the facility and what the doctor told her.

"But the file wrote that the doctor went with them?" Chief struggled to comprehend everything.

"It was hacked, he changed it to look like he was captured with Locke but turns out, he was else ware." Cortana pulled up the old file:

**Date: **May 30th, 2557

**Time: **17:22:35 Minutes

**Location: Unknown**

**Logged From: **UNSC Cobra Squad

**Code Number: **34527-2

**Information: **Classified – Dangerous Mission level 14

UNSC Cobra Squad dispatched 5 squad members near the entrance of the unknown territory. The members included 2 ODST, 2 Spartans IV's and one doctor from UNSC research branch. The area was heavily guarded with Prometheans who had new and non-recorded weaponry. It is also noted that the race was colored with excessive blue and red, opposed to orange. It is believed that the race has been injected with new DNA; samples were taken from a disarmed member of the race.

Squad Members:

Mission Commander: Chris Walker, Discharged

Spartan IV SDT-225-77654 – Ryan Miller, MIA

Spartan IV SRR-336-88621 — Kelly Jones, Active

ODST 9967 – Jenna Carlton, KIA

ODST 7359 – Mathew Turner, KIA

Doctor Troy K. Taylor, MIA

**END.**

"Hold on you're telling me that they didn't go to the 'underground' place you were at?" Chief was holding his forehead.

"Not exactly, they went to successfully destroy the ring first, then went to the base."

"That explains why his team completely changed – most of them were killed but the one pilot and Agent Locke, but he managed to get a sample?"

"Correct." Cortana nodded and noticed Chief was still confused so she tried to explain everything:

"Okay, let me put this all together. Agent Locke was a highly respected soldier and worked for ONI. His father, an insane doctor or also known as Dr. Taylor pressured his son, Agent Locke, to get samples from the ring that has a substance that's lethal to humans. Agent Locke retrieved the substance and destroyed the rings fragment getting off with the pilot alive. After that he and his new team, because the others were dead, were deployed on the underground mission, where I was. His father hacked the files to show he was on that mission so when they were all captured ONI didn't suspect anything and just assumed he was MIA." Cortana took a deep breath and leaned on the table.

Chief felt like his head was throbbing like someone hit him with a gravity hammer.

"What happened once they were captured?" Chief glanced at the files.

"I don't know for certain, but I am assuming the Didact found out about the substance and took it from Agent Locke before he brainwashed Dr. Taylor and Agent Locke." Cortana chewed on her lip.

"So the Didact tricked Dr. Taylor so instead they were both brainwashed and tested as experiments?" Chief rubbed his face.

"Correct." Cortana nodded half believing what she was saying.

"What happened to the substance then?" Chief noticed Cortana barely holding herself up and squeezing her eyes shut.

"That," She held her breathe her voice raw, "Was the substance used on me to check my immortality."

Chief felt numb.

She flicked her wrist pulling up one of the videos that ONI tried to display early that were recorded with her mind.

"One of the many injections," She said before pressing play keeping her eyes shut and covering her ears.

Chief watched, horrified, Cortana was in that terribly familiar white chair strapped down. She received another injection and immediately was thrashing around with a blood curdling scream that made Chief feel a mix of anger and hopelessness.

"You'll notice," Cortana paused the video and zoomed in on her arm. "The black lines and the discoloration of skin was the infection, it attacks your organs and turns your veins into dead cells.

Chief tried to swallow but his mouth was dry and he was frozen.

"I'm sorry." He whispered barely auditable but Cortana heard him and stared at his visor, half of her in another place.

"But now you understand. This," She gestured towards the screen, "Will become the ships reality if we don't stop it." She stood up straight and cracked her knuckles her eyes still glazed over.

"How is the substance here, on the ship?" Chief raised his eyebrows under the orange visor.

"During the duration Halsey wasn't or was fighting the brainwash while she was at the underground base with me she was able to snatch the sample and hid it." Cortana started walked over to a locked vault.

"But unfortunately," Cortana placed her hand on the scanner, the vault clicked open. "Agent Locke got here when he first was with ONI"

"Isn't he in a cyropod?" Chief started glancing at the security cameras.

"He was, but who do you think let him out?" Cortana slammed the vault shut and crossed her arms.

Chief shook his head and looked away. He felt betrayed, by the system he protected for so long.

"Serin Osman," Cortana finished walking towards the back of the room.

Chief just shut his eyes, he wanted to punch something, put a fresh hole in the wall. But it wasn't in his nature to lash out, that wasn't how he handled emotions.

"Let's shut it down."


	36. Authors Note

Authors Note:

Hey everyone! I'm really sorry that I haven't been posting! Unfortunately, this past week has been difficult. We are going through a family tragedy and I've found it extremely difficult to write. I should be writing soon and I'm sorry for the inconvenience. If you'd like to help out (since my mind isn't really working) feel free to PM me idea's, comments, etc. They really do help and I've already incorporated some in the future plot.

Thank you for reading, it means a lot.


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